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QP45  .Am3  Report  of  the  Americ 


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AMERICAN  HUMANE  ASSOCIATION 


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REPORT 


OF 


THE    AMERICAN    HUMANE 
ASSOCIATION 


ON 


Vivisection  and  Dissection 
in  Schools 


CHICAGO 
1895 


The  American  Humane  Association  particularly 
desires  that  this  Report  may  reach  every  teacher  of 
physiology  in  the  public  and  private  schools  of  this 
country.  Copies  will  be  mailed  prepaid  on  receipt  of 
four  cents^  in  postage  stamps,  and  twelve  copies  will  be 
sent  for  forty  cents.     Address 

Dr.    Albert   Leffingwell, 

62    Kirkland   Street, 

Cambridge,    Mass. 


THE 


American  Humane  Association. 


Societies  of  the  United  States  and  Canada 


ORGANIZED    FOR    THE 


Prevention  of  Cruelty   to   Animals 
and   Children. 


JOHN   G.    SHORTALL,  President, 
560  Wabash  Avenue,  Chicago,  111. 


Dear  Sir: 

Your  attention  may  already  have  been  called  to  the 
more  or  less  public  discussion  concerning  the  effect 
upon  our  youth  of  those  methods  of  instruction,  obtain- 
ing to  some  extent  in  our  public  schools  (  and  we  fear 
being  urged  to  yet  wider  prevalence,)  whereby  the 
facts  of  physiology  are  set  forth  by  means  of  actual 
experimentation  upon  living  animals,  etherized  for 
that  purpose.  Animals,  such  as  frogs,  pigeons,  dogs 
and    particularly  cats,    are    dissected    before    mixed 


2         AMERICAN  HUMANE  ASSOCIATION. 

classes  of  boys  and  girls, — sometimes  the  teacher 
operating,  and  sometimes  the  pupils.  The  American 
Humane  Association,  having  had  its  attention  very 
forcibly  called  to  this  matter,  and  realizing  that  public 
opi?iion  must,  at  least  e?icourage  or  discourage  such  meth- 
ods of  instruction  in  our  schools,  earnestly  desires  to 
obtain  the  opinion  of  those  who  largely  shape  and 
guide  the  public  thought.  Will  you  therefore  be  kind 
enough  to  give  us  your  judgment  upon  the  following 
questions  : 

i  st.  Will  experiments  involving  either  the  infliction 
of  pain  or  death  upon  helpless  creatures  tend  to  culti" 
vate  or  to  blunt  the  natural  sensibilities  of  children 
assisting  thereat  ? 

2nd.  Do  you  think  it  advisable  to  give  to  children 
a  belief  in  their  irresponsible  power  over  the  lower 
forms  of  life  ? 

3rd.  Do  you  consider  it  in  accord  with  the  best 
interests  of  education  that  children  be  familiarized  with 
the  infliction  upon  animals  of  mortal  wounds,  with  the 
sight  of  blood,  or  the  process  of  dying  ? 

4th.  In  the  teaching  of  children  in  public  schools 
of  those  rudimentary  truths  of  physiology  and  hygiene 
which  pertain  to  the  care  and  preservation  of  health, 
could  not  everything  needful  be  clearly  taught  by  the 
use  of  illustrations  and  manikins,  without  resort  to  ex- 
periments on  living  creatures  ? 

5th.  If  before  advanced  students  it  be  sometimes 
deemed  advisable  to  expose  the  vital  organs  of  ani- 
mals already  killed,  would  it  not  seem  far  preferable 


VIVISECTION  IN   SCHOOLS.  3 

that  such  demonstrations  be  upon  animals  used  for 
food,  rather  than  upon  those  whose  whole  existence  is 
associated  with  human  companionship  and  affection? 

The  American  Humane  Association  is  of  the  opin 
ion  that  not  only  vivisection  and  the  killing  of  animals 
by  and  before  children  of  public  school  age,  but  also 
their  dissection,  not  only  neutralizes  much  of  the  work 
its  Constituent  Societies  have  so  long  been  laboring  to 
accomplish,  but  that  such  practices  must  inevitably 
operate  to  the  moral  injury  of  the  young,  and  the  dull- 
ing of  all  those  finer  feelings  so  essential  to  the 
noblest  types  of   manhood  and  womanhood. 

Believing  that  in  view  of  the  interest  at  stake,  you 
will  be  willing  to  give  this  Association  the  benefit  of 
your  judgment,  I  am,  sir, 

Respectfully  yours, 

John  G.   Shortall,  President. 

Rev.  Francis  H.  Rowley, 
Albert  Leffingwell,  M.  D., 

Special  Committee. 


REPORT. 

The  committee  to  whom  was  intrusted  the  duty  of 
receiving  replies  to  the  circular  of  the  American 
Humane  Association  regarding  dissection  and  vivisec- 
tion in  public  schools  beg  leave  to  submit  the  follow- 
ing report : 

Two  letters  of  inquiry  have  been  issued  at  an  inter- 
val of  several  months.  They  were  identical  in  effect 
except  as  regards  the  wording  of  the  fifth  question. 
For  the  sake  of  accuracy  it  is  deemed  best  to  call  at- 
tention to  this  difference ;  although  it  seems  exceed- 
ingly improbable  that  the  general  character  of  replies 
to  the  first  circular,  as  a  whole,  would  have  been 
essentially  different  had  the  second  form  of  interro- 
gation only  been  used. 

This  fifth  interrogation  of  the  first  circular  was  as 
follows  : 

"  If  before  advanced  students,  it  be  sometimes 
deemed  judicious  to  expose  the  vital  organs  or  vital 
phenomena  of  creatures  under  anaesthetics,  and  killed 
while  unconscious,  would  it  not  seem  far  preferable  that 
these  be  upon  animals  used  for  food,  than  upon  those 
whose  whole  existence  is  associated  with  human  com- 
panionship and  affection?" 

This  implies  the  use  of  painless  vivisection  before 
advanced  students  ;  and  on  further  consideration  that 


VIVISECTION  IN  SCHOOLS.  5 

subject  was  deemed  somewhat  aside  from  the  real 
purpose  of  these  inquiries.  In  the  second  edition  the 
question  was  changed  so  as  to  refer  simply  to  the 
dissection  of  dead  animals  and  the  preferable  study  of 
the  lungs  and  heart  of  a  sheep  or  an  ox,  in  place 
of  animals  generally  used  for  pets,  and  specially 
put  to  death  for  purposes  of  dissection.     It  ran    thus  : 

"  If  before  advanced  students  it  be  sometimes 
deemed  advisable  to  expose  the  vital  organs  of  animals 
already  killed,  would  it  nor  seem  far  preferable  that 
such  demonstrations  be  upon  animals  used  for  food, — 
rather  than  upon  those  whose  whole  existence  is  asso- 
ciated with  human  companionship  and  affection?" 

Fully  half  of  the  replies  received  were  made  in  mono- 
syllables directly  upon  the  margin  of  the  circular  it- 
self. Others  were  accompanied  by  letters, — sometimes 
making  slight  distinctions  (  particularly  as  to  the  age 
of  the  pupils  when  dissection  might  be  allowed,)  but 
expressing  to  a  greater  or  less  degree,  agreement  with 
the  sentiment  prevalent  in  the  Association. 

In  several  instances  the  writers  were  very  careful  to 
disclaim  any  antipathy  toward  scientific  vivisection  in 
Medical  Colleges,  while  strongly  condemning  its  em- 
ployment in  public  and  private  schools.  A  few  others, 
regarding  the  questions  of  the  committee  as  an  attack 
upon  all  vivisection,  have  presented  the  Association 
with  arguments  for  its  defense  as  a  method  of  profes- 
sional instruction.  If  their  replies  are  not  herein 
quoted,  it  is  because  the  writers  apparently  misappre- 
hended the  subject  of  the  present  inquiry — the  use  of 


6        AMERICAN  HUMANE  ASSOCIATION. 

dissection    and    vivisection    in    public    and    private 
schools. 

Answers  were  received  to  the  first  circular  from  the 
following  persons  : 

President  David  H.  Cochran,  Ph.  D.,  LL.  D.,  Poly- 
tech,7iic  Institute,  Brooklyn,  N.   Y.  : 

"  You  are  personally  aware  of  my  position  in  regard 
to  vivisection  for  illustration.  It  has  been  forbidden 
in  the  Polytechnic  Institute  for  many  years,  and  no 
animal  is  permitted  to  be  killed  on  the  premises  for 
illustrative  purposes." 

President  M.  W.  Stryker,  D.D.,  LL.  D.,  Hamilton 
College,  N.  Y.  .- 

"  While  disclaiming  the  slightest  ability  to  express  a 
technical  opinion,  I  will  say  from  an  ethical  point  of 
view  that  I  do  certainly  sympathize  with  the  consider- 
ations urged  in  your  circular.  I  feel  deeply  that 
vivisection  should  be  reduced  to  instances  of  absolute 
necessity,  and  that  much  of  it,  as  practiced  in  the 
presence  of  those  whom  it  teaches  to  neglect  the 
rights  of  animals,  is  inevitably  brutalizing." 

Prof.    Thomas     M.    Cooley,    LL.    D.,    University  of 
Michigan  : 

"  The  whole  business  of  vivisection  of  animals  ought 
in  my  opinion  to  be  brought  to  an  end,  except  where 
it  can  be  conducted  under  the  supervision  of  experi- 
enced surgeons." 


VIVISECTION  IN  SCHOOLS.  7 

President  E.  Benj.  Andrews,  D.  D.,  LL.  D.,  Brcnvn 

University,  Providence,  P.  I.  : 

"  The  subject  is  a  delicate  one.  All  experiments 
and  operations  in  this  department  here,  are  guarded  in 
the  most  careful  manner  ;  no  pain  is  permitted  to  be 
suffered  by  any  creature,  and  no  dissection  goes  on 
to  which  anyone  could  object." 

Prof.    Selim    Peabody,  Late   President   University  of 

Illinois  : 

"  In  my  opinion  vivisection  should  be  permitted 
only  to  such  persons  of  advanced  scientific  culture  and 
training  as  may  wish  to  make  it  an  instrument  of  re- 
search. .  .  .  Vivisection  should  never  be  used  merely  for 
purposes  of  curiosity,  or  even  for  illustration.  There 
is  no  place  for  it  in  any  school  below  that  which  has 
immediately  or  secondarily  a  professional  character 
and  purpose.  Least  of  all  should  vivisection  be  con- 
ducted in  the  presence  of  children,  or  persons  of  im- 
mature age,  in  grammar  schools,  high  schools,  and 
academies." 

President  James  M.  Taylor,  D.  D.,  Vassar  College : 

"  I  do  not  think  such  a  course  in  any  way  necessary 

or  desirable  within  the  limits  of  a  general  education." 

President  James  MacAlister,  LL.  D.,   Drexel  Insti- 
tute, Philadelphia  : 

"  With  reference  to  the  experimentation  upon  living 
animals  in  connection  with  elementary  instruction  in 
physiology,  I  beg  to  say  that,  in  my  judgment,  it  is 
very    undesirable.   ...   I  quite  agree   with   you   that 


8  AMERICAN  HUMANE  ASSOCIATION. 

the  manikin  and  other  appliances  available  for  the 
purpose  of  illustration  are  sufficient  for  the  lower 
grades  of  instruction  and  that  the  use  of  dissection 
must  operate  in  blunting  the  moral  sensibilities  of  the 
young  people." 

Prof.  Edmund  J.  James,  Ph.  D.,    University  of  Penn- 
sylvania : 

"  I  regard  such  experiments  as  barbarous  and  calcu- 
lated to  do  far  more  harm,  from  an  educational  point 
of  view,  than  they  can  possibly  do  good.  Any  dissection 
of  live  animals  for  the  mere  purpose  of  instruction  is, 
in  my  opinion,  not  only  inhuman,  but  highly  un- 
pedagogical.  The  only  possible  condition  in  which 
vivisection  can  be  justified,  is  when  it  is  absolutely 
necessary  to  the  actual  carrying  out  of  scientific  inves- 
tigations. Any  vivisection  for  mere  purposes  of  illus- 
tration either  in  public  schools  or  in  medical  schools 
ought  to  be  prohibited  by  law.  I  can  hardly  trust  my- 
self to  express  my  feelings  upon  this  subject." 

Prof.  Geo.  Wilton  Field,  Brown  University,  Provi- 
dence, P.  I.  : 
"  It  is  not  advisable  to  kill,  dissect,  or  vivisect  any  of 

the  red  blooded  animals   in   the    presence   of   young 

children.       Manikins    preferable,  otherwise  alcoholic 

preparations." 

John  T.   Prince,   Board  of  Education,  West  Newton, 

Mass.  : 

"  Vivisection  has  no  place  in  our  public  schools,  and 
ought  not  to    be  practiced  there.  ...   As  to  killing 


VIVISECTION  IN  SCHOOLS.  9 

animals  before  children,  I  quite  agree  with  the  views 
of  your  Association,  but  I  cannot  agree  with  it  in  its 
condemnation  of  dissection  of  animals.  In  the  upper 
grades  of  the  grammar  schools  and  in  all  grades  of 
the  high  school  a  knowledge  of  the  structure  of  ani- 
mals should  be  gained  and  it  cannot  be  gained  by  any 
means  so  well  as  by  actual  observation  of  the  parts 
under  the  direction  of  a  teacher." 
Prof.  Geo.  W.  Atherton,  Star  College,  Pa.  : 

"  It  seems  to  me  that  the  practice  of  either  vivisection 
or  dissection  in  the  presence  of  children  of  the  usual 
school  age  is  not  only  unnecessary,  in  the  grade  and 
amount  of  instruction  that  can  be  given  in  the  public 
schools,  but  is  altogether  injurious  and  inadmissible. 
Its  advantages  at  that  stage  of  instruction  seem  to  me 
to  be  very  slight,  while  the  disadvantages  and  in- 
jurious results  upon  the  habits  of  thought  and  feeling 
of  the  pupils  seem  to  me  so  obvious  that  every  right 
thinking  person  must  revolt  against  it." 
Rev.  Dr.   C.  W.    Leffingwell,   Editor   "  The  Living 

Church"  Chicago,  III.      Founder  of  St.  Agnes  School, 

Knoxville,  III.  : 

"  Experiments  involving  pain  or  death  of  animals 
must  blunt  the  sensibilities  of  young  persons  present ; 
it  is  not  advisable  to  teach  children  that  they  have  a 
right  to  deal  with  this  mystery  of  life  for  such  pur- 
poses. 

"  I  think  it  most  undesirable  to  familiarize  the  minds 
of  the  young  with  the  sight  of  suffering  and  dying. 
Those  whom  it  does  not  shock  it  will  harden." 


10       AMERICAN  HUMANE  ASSOCIATION. 

There  is  no  need  of  experimenting  upon  living  crea- 
tures for  the  imparting  of  physiological  truth  ;  every 
organ  can  be  studied  and  dissected  apart  from  the 
body  from  which  it  is  taken,  and  without  exhibition  of 
the  living  animal  or  even  of  the  dead  one.  It  is  un- 
necessary to  take  any  animal,  as  a  whole,  for  the  pur- 
pose of  instruction.  Each  part  can  be  dissected 
separately." 

Rev.  Dr.  Lyman  Abbott,  Pastor  of  Plymouth  Church, 
Brooklyn.     Editor  of  "The  Outlook"  New  York  City : 

"I  am  not  sufficiently  acquainted  with  the  pros  and 
cons  in  the  matter  of  vivisection  to  express  any  valua- 
ble opinion  upon  the  subject  at  large,  but  I  should 
think  it  very  clear  that  not  only  vivisection,  but  even 
the  dissection  of  animals,  carried  on  by  or  before 
children  of  public  school  age  must  do  a  great  deal 
more  harm  than  it  can  possibly  do  good." 

B.  O.  Flower,  Editor  of  u  The  Arena"  Boston,  Mass.  : 
"  It  is  difficult  to  conceive  of  anything  more  in- 
jurious to  the  child  than  allowing  it  to  witness  or  en- 
gage in  experiments  involving  the  infliction  of  pain  or 
death  upon  helpless  animals.  It  is  bound  to  blunt  the 
finer  sensibilities  and  call  out  the  savage  in  the 
child. 

"  I  am  as  unqualifiedly  opposed  to  the  familiarizing 
children  with  the  infliction  of  pain  or  mortal  wounds 
on  animals  as  I  am  opposed  to  giving  children  military 
instruction  in  our  schools.  The  child  that  becomes 
familiar    with  torturing    dumb  animals  and  the   child 


VIVISECTION  IN  SCHOOLS.  I  I 

who  is  familiarized  with  war,  during  the  plastic  years 
when  his  character  is  being  formed,  will  necessarily 
be  brutalized  to  a  very  great  extent.  I  do  not  believe 
in  vivisection.  I  believe  that  all  experiments  nec- 
essary have   already  been  made. 

"  Certainly  there  is  no  excuse    whatever  for  using 
aught  in  the  public  schools  beyond  illustrations,  mani- 
kins, etc." 
Hon.  Arba  N.  Waterman,  Judge  oj  Illinois  Appellate 

Court,  Chicago  : 

"Civilization  in  its  moral  aspect  consists  in  a 
heightened  sympathy  with,  and  consideration  for,  those 
men  or  animals  in  our  power.  It  is  impossible  to 
train  a  child  to  indifference  as  regards  the  suffering  of 
a  helpless  dog,  and  at  the  same  time  to  be  mindful  of 
the  rights  of  little  children." 

Rev.  O.  B.  Frothingham,  Boston,  Mass. : 

"  I  have  no  hesitation  in  expressing  my  hearty  ap- 
proval of  all  the  ideas  contained  in  the  circular  you 
so  kindly  send  me.  Young  people  can  get  all  the 
physiological  instruction  they  need,  and  more,  without 
hurting  a  single  creature.  It  is  a  shame  that  they 
should  be  demoralized  by  experiments  that  inflict 
pain  on  the  lower  animals ;  that  they  should  regard 
these  animals  as  victims  of  irresponsible  power;  that 
they  should  early  be  familiarized  with  blood,  torture 
or  death.  If  vivisection  is  necessary,  a  matter  that  I 
am  not  quite  sure  about,  it  should  be  confined  to 
skilful    physicians    experimenting    in    laboratories,  or 


12       AMERICAN  HUMANE  ASSOCIATION 

lecturing  to  adults,  and  under  conditions  which  in- 
sure the  utmost  benefit  with  the  least  possible  tor- 
ment. If  the  human  advantage  is  merely  probable 
and  the  agony  considerable,  the  advantage  should  be 
forborne.  We  have  learned  to  wait  for  knowledge, 
while  as  to  bearing  p'ain,  man,  with  his  vast  mental 
and  moral  resources,  ought  to  be  ashamed  to  confess 
inferiority  to  the  dumb  beasts." 

Rev.  Dr.  H.  W.  Thomas,  Chicago,  III.  : 

"  The  practice  of  vivisection  in  the  higher  schools 
of  our  country,  medical  and  other  colleges,  has  been 
carried,  to  say  the  least,  to  the  borders  of  abuse,  and 
its  introduction  to  the  public  schools  should  be  dis- 
couraged and  condemned  by  all  who  have  the  highest 
good  of  the  rising  generations  at  heart.  It  is  not 
necessary  for  practical  instruction  in  physiology,  and 
if  such  lessons  are  needed,  they  should  be  taught  from 
the  forms  of  life  taken  for  use  as  food. 

"In  all  young  minds  and  hearts  should  be  culti- 
vated a  sacred  reverence  for  life  and  the  kindest  feel- 
ings for  every  creature  capable  of  suffering  pain. 

"We  should  certainly  hope  that  the  humane  senti- 
ments of  our  age  will  create  a  public  feeling  so 
strong  as  to  discourage  and  prevent  every  form  of 
cruelty  and  the  shedding  of  blood  in  our  public 
schools." 

Rev.  A.   W.   Stevens,   Cambridge,  Mass.  : 

"  No  person,  old  or  young,  should  inflict  either 
wounds  or  death  on  any  animal  except  in  cases  of 
clear  necessity." 


VIVISECTION  IN  SCHOOLS.  1 3 

Rev.   N.   Seaver,  Jr.,  Millbury,  Mass.  : 

.  .  .  "  Stating  the  case  broadly,  I  think  that  in- 
formation calculated  to  make  children  less  humane 
is  not  profitable  or  even  pardonable.  Better  more 
attention  to  the  rudiments  of  education  and  fewer  of 
the  fads  that  are  instructive  and  helpful,  if  at  all,  to 
but  a  very  small  minority  of  mature  and  scholarly 
minds.  To  permit  children  to  witness  what  they 
must  regard  as  torture  is  positively  demoralizing. 
To  fill  their  heads  with  scientific  facts  for  which  not 
one  in  a  thousand  will  ever  have  a  use,  and  then 
permit  them  to  graduate  from  High  School,  spelling 
'separate'  with  one  'a,'  is  a  piece  with  much  other 
prevalent  nonsense." 

Rev.   Dr.   R.  A.  White,   Chicago,  III.: 

"  I  fully  and  heartily  concur  in  your  efforts  to  stop 
the  practice  of  vivisection  or  dissection  of  animals 
of  any  kind  in  the  public  schools.  Vivisection  under 
proper  restrictions  may  be  of  sufficient  value  to  medi- 
cal science  when  performed  by  medical  experts  to 
counterbalance  its  cruelties.  But  anything  of  the 
kind  before  public  school  pupils,  not  one  in  a  thou- 
sand of  whom  will  ever  study  or  practice  medicine,  is 
absolutely  unnecessary  and  without  reason.  It  bru- 
talizes the  children,  subordinates  in  their  estimation 
the  rights  of  animals  to  life  and  reasonable  human 
care,  and  is  of  no  practical  value  beyond  what  could 
as  well  be  obtained  in  other  ways.  Set  me  down  as 
one  who  loves  my  fellow  animals,  and  deprecates  any 


14       AMERICAN  HUMANE  ASSOCIATION. 

unnecessary  infliction  of  pain  upon  them,  no  less  than 
that  loss  of  fine  feeling  which  inevitably  follows  on  the 
part  of  children  systematically  trained  to  hold  the  suf- 
ferings of  animals  lightly." 

Rev.  W.   C.  Gannett,  Rochester,  N.  Y.  : 

"  If  the  custom  of  vivisection  is  entering  our  public 
schools,  I  rejoice  that  you  are  taking  up  the  matter  in 
this  way.  .  .  .  Were  a  child  of  mine  attending  a 
private  school  where  this  practice  was  followed,  I 
should  feel  that  all  good  it  might  get  in  other  ways 
would  be  largely  offset  by  this  cruelty,  and  should 
take  the  child  away." 

Rev.   Dr.  Leslie  W.   Sprague,   San  Francisco,  Cal.  : 

"  To  inflict  pain  may  not  be  the  result  of  cruelty ; 
but  it  causes  either  deadened  sensibilities,  or  a  delight 
in  seeing  pain." 

Rev.  A.  J.   Chapin,   D.  D.,    Omaha,  Neb.  : 

"  I  believe  the  business  of  dissection,  and  especially 
of  vivisection  as  practiced  in  the  public  schools  of  all 
grades,  to  be  wholly  unnecessary  and  wrong,  and  am 
glad  to  use  any  influence  which  I  may  possess  against 
the  demoralizing  practice." 

Rev.  J.   E.   C.  Welldon,   D.  D.,    Head  Master  Har- 
row School,  England.  : 
"I  should  say   such  experiments  will  undoubtedly 

blunt  the  sensibilities  of  children.     Their  power  is  not 

irresponsible,  and  they  should  certainly  not  be  taught 

that  it  is." 


VIVISECTION  IN  SCHOOLS.  I  5 

Profs.  Ladd  and    Daniell,    Chauncey   Hall  School, 
Boston,  Mass.  : 

"  Without  expressing  any  opinion  in  regard  to  what 
may  be  wise  for  college  students,  we  disapprove  very 
strongly  of  vivisection  in  grammar  or  high  schools." 

Miss  Florence  Buck,   Cleveland,  O.  : 

"  I  am  in  hearty  sympathy  with  the  effort  of  the 
Humane  Association  in  this  direction.  For  eight 
years  I  have  been  a  teacher  of  physiology  in  the  High 
School,  and  am  convinced  that  both  there  and  in  lower 
grades,  all  that  pertains  to  human  physiology  which 
comes  within  the  scope  of  such  instruction,  may  be 
taught  from  manikins  and  from  organs  of  animals  used 
for  food. 

"  I  hope  the  Society  will  also  protest  against  the  ex- 
periment so  frequently  described  in  works  on  Physics, 
that  of  introducing  a  mouse  under  the  receiver  of  an 
air-pump.  To  allow  students  to  witness  the  dying 
struggles  of  a  helpless  creature  is  injurious  to  the 
finer  sensibilities." 

Miss  Lillian  Freeman  Clark,  Boston,  Mass.  : 

"  In  my  opinion,  the  sight  of  suffering  in   animals 
or  human  beings   is   only  harmless   to   the  bystander 
when  his  presence  is  necessary   or   desirable  for  the 
relief  of  the  sufferer." 
Prof.  J.  H.  Allen,  Cambridge,  Mass.  : 

"  My  opinion  is  not  that  of  an  expert  in  the  present 
methods  of  common  school  instruction  ;  but  it  is  clear 
and  decided  on  the  following  points : 


1 6      A  MERICA  N  HUM  A  NE   AS  SO  CIA  TION. 

" 1.  It  is  shocking  and  unpardonable  that  anything 
approaching  or  resembling  vivisection  should  be  per- 
mitted except  in  professional  schools,  and  then  only 
under  the  greatest  precautions  as  to  anaesthetics. 

"2.  That  any  form  of  dissection  of  animal  tissues 
is  probably  worse  than  useless  as  a  basis  of  instruc- 
tion, except  in  special  classes  of  the  highest  grade  of 
public  schools ;  and  for  ail  that  can  be  profitably 
taught  to  the  ordinary  pupil,  plates  and  models  are 
preferable  on  every  account,  size,  neatness,  intelligi- 
bility and  precision." 

Prof.  William  James,  M.  D.,  Harvard  University.  : 

"  By  such  experiments  I  should  apprehend  no  spe- 
cial effect  in  the  way  of  either  heightening  or  blunting 
the  sensibilities  of  average  children.  There  are  '  psy- 
chopathic "  children  who  might  either  receive  a  haunt- 
ing shock,  or  an  impulse  to  cruelty,  according  to  the 
bent  of  their  weakness,  from  the  sight  of  dissection,  etc. 
"  To  the  third  question  I  reply  '  no,'  so  far  as  child- 
ren below  16  or  17  are  concerned.  After  that  age  the 
answer  depends  on  the  special  circumstances.  To 
have  seen  mortal  wounds  and  death  is  often  a  vitally 
important  experience.  To  be  '  familiarized  '  with  them 
may  be  unfortunate.  To  be  familiarized  with  blood,  in 
the  case  of  those  whom  it  makes  faint,  means  the 
overcoming  of  a  most  deleterious  weakness. 

"At  the  high  school  age  of  17  or  18,  the  sight  of  a 
dead  animal  dissected  is  for  almost  all  boys  a  highly 
desirable  experience,  ministering  to  a  most  legitimate 
intellectual  need.     With  a  serious  teacher,  I   see  no 


VIVISECTION  IN   SCHOOLS.  1 7 

possible  harm,  except  to  ' psychopathic '  subjects.  I 
believe  vivisection  of  any  sort  to  be  quite  out  of  place 
in  schools  of  any  grade. 

"  To  college  classes,  vivisectional  demonstration  of  the 
spinal  reflexes  on  a  decapitated  frog,  and  exhibition  of 
a  frog  and  a  pigeon  painlessly  deprived  of  their  cere- 
bral hemispheres,  are  invaluable.  Odier  vivisections 
(a  frog's  nerve  muscle  preparation  can  hardly  be  called 
a  vivisection)  seem  to  me  best  omitted. 

"  I  believe  that  there  goes  on  in  medical  schools  a 
lot  of  purely  wanton  vivisection  for  purposes  of  '  de- 
monstration,' which  the  class  does  not  see,  and  which 
is  wasteful  of  life  and  condemnable. 

"  I  believe  in  keeping  up  a  sore  state  of  public  opin- 
ion as  to  this  latter  sort  of  cruelty.  .  .  .  What  is 
needed  is  a  great  public  sense  of  the  responsibility  of 
our  power  of  life  and  death  over  lower  creatures.  For 
this  result  as  much  as  anything  depends,  it  seems  to 
me,  on  the  example  of  the  teacher's  spirit." 
Prof.  H.  E.  Summers,  Professor  of  Physiology,  Uni- 
versity of  Illinois  : 

"  Children  show  little  natural  sensibility  to  pain 
inflicted  on  lower  animals  ;  what  they  have  can  only  be 
imparted  to  them  by  careful  training.  Hence  the  wit- 
nessing of  the  infliction  of  pain  is  decidedly  harmful, 
as  tending  to  prevent  their  acquisition  of  a  proper 
degree  of  sensibility.  .  .  .  A  fly  may  be  killed  cru- 
elly, a  pet  dog  humanely.  It  is  impossible,  even  if 
desirable,  to  prevent  most  children  killing  at  least 
insects ;    they    should    therefore  be  taught  to    do    it 

2 


1 8       AMERICAN  HUMANE  ASSOCIATION. 

humanely  with  full  regard  to  the  feelings  of  the  smallest 
living  creature. 

"  Children  should  certainly  not  be  given  a  belief  in 
their  irresponsible  power  ;  of  the  power  controlled  by  a 
great  responsibility,  yes.  They  will  learn  that  they 
have  the  power  despite  us ;  and  the  knowledge  of 
responsibility  should  come  with  the  knowledge  of  the 
power." 

Edwin  D.  Mead,  Editor  "  New  England  Magazine  :  " 
"  In  reply  to  your  circular  concerning  dissection  and 
experimentation  upon  animals,  in  connection  with  the 
teaching  of  physiology  in  the  schools,  I  would  say  that 
all  such  work  should  be  done  with  great  care  and  under 
the  most  scientific  supervision.  I  cannot  conceive 
of  conditions  which  would  ever  make  it  necessary  or 
useful  in  the  lower  grades  of  any  schools." 

Prof.  Bar,  University  of  Gottingen,  Germany  : 

"  I  agree  fully  with  the  American  Humane 
Association  in  the  opinion  that  not  only  vivisection,  but 
even  dissection  of  animals,  killed  by  and  before  child- 
ren of  public  school  age,  will  inevitably  operate  to  the 
moral  injury  of  the  young." 


VIVISECTION  IN   SCHOOLS.  1 9 

Extracts  from  Replies  to  the  Second 
Circular. 


His  Eminence,  Cardinal  Gibbons,  Baltimore,  Md.  : 

"  In  reply  to  questions  addressed  to  me  in  the 
name  of  the  American  Humane  Association,  I  beg  to 
say  that  I  am  inclined  to  think  such  experiments  as 
you  mention  tend  to  blunt  the  natural  sensibilities  of 
children  assisting  thereat. 

"  The  best  interests  of  children,  in  my  judgment, 
require  that  they  be  not  familiarized  with  the  sight  of 
blood  or  death,  inhumanly  inflicted. 

"  I  am  inclined  to  think  that  sufficient  instruction 
could  be  imparted  by  the  use  of  illustrations  and  man- 
ikins. I  think  it  advisable  to  give  children  the  knowl- 
edge as  Scripture  does,  of  the  God-given  power  of 
man  over  the  lower  forms  of  life ;  but  they  should  be 
warned  that  this  power  is  not  absolute,  arbitrary  or 
cruel." 

Rt.  Rev.  Bishop    Alfred   Barry,    Chaplain  to  Her 

Majesty,    Windsor    Castle,   England: 

"I  take  it  for  granted  that  in  the  experiments  re- 
ferred to  effective  anaesthetics  are  used,  and  there- 
fore that  no  cruel  infliction  of  pain  takes  place. 

"  But  even  in  that  case,  I  should  think  it  most  un- 
desirable to  perform  experiments  on  living  animals 
before  children  just  at  the  age  at  which  experience 
proves  that  there  is  the  greatest  temptation  to  reck- 


20       AMERICAN  HUMANE   ASSOCIATION. 

lessness  and  cruelty.  Even  under  anaesthetics  there 
is  often,  as  we  know  in  human  subjects,  the  appear- 
ance of  struggle  and  suffering,  which  should  be  in 
itself  offensive  to  a  sensitive  temper,  and  the  desire 
of  imitation,  so  characteristic  of  growing  boys,  is  not 
unlikely  to  lead  to  the  repetition  of  the  experiments 
without  anaesthetics.  I  cannot  believe  that  for  such 
physiological  and  hygienic  teaching  as  is  suitable  to 
children,  vivisection  can  be  necessary.  There  are 
many  things  not  wrong  in  themselves  which  we  should 
keep  from  children  to  whom  "  maxima  debetur  rever- 
ential and  vivisection  is  one  of  them." 

Rt.  Rev.  Geo.  F.  Seymour,  LL.  D.,  Bishop  of  Spring- 
field, III.  : 

"  In  response  to  your  inquiries,  I  would  say,  with- 
out any  qualification,  that  the  American  Humane 
Association  is  right  in  the  position  which  it  takes  as 
expressed  by  your  questions. 

"  To  reverse  the  policy  of  taking  thought  and  sym- 
pathy for  others,  and  particularly  for  creatures  which 
cannot  protect  themselves  and  have  no  laws  to  shelter 
them,  is  most  pernicious,  in  my  judgment,  in  its  effects 
upon  the  young,  and  the  result  must  be  most  disas- 
trous upon  character.  The  plea  for  such  atrocities 
will  not  bear  serious  consideration.  All  the  knowl- 
edge of  the  economies  of  life  needed  by  the  ordi- 
nary man  or  woman  can  be  readily  obtained  from 
illustrated  works  on  the  subject  of  physiology  within 
the  reach  of  all." 


VIVISECTION  IN  SCHOOLS.  21 

Rt.  Rev.  Francis  M.  Whittle,    LL.  D.,    Bishop   of 

Virginia  : 

"  Such  experiments   I    think    must   most   decidedly 
blunt  and  destroy  the  sensibilities  of  children." 
Rt.    Rev.    William    Andrew    Leonard,    Bishop   of 

Ohio  : 

"  Objective  lessons  in  pain  must  necessarily  deaden 
and  dull  the  sensibilities  of  boys  and  girls. 

"  Children  should  be  taught  kindness  and  gentle- 
ness towards  God's  creatures  ;  they  should  realize 
their  responsibility  to  hurt  nothing. 

"  The  sight  of  blood  and  physical  agony  should  not 
be  allowed  to  children.  In  Connecticut,  I  believe, 
no  butcher  may  sit  as  a  juryman  in  a  murder  case, 
and  the  law  is  doubtless  based  on  this  principle. 

"  Undoubtedly  children  can  be  taught  all  that  it  is 
necessary  for  them  to  learn  of  physiology  and  hy- 
giene by  illustrated  books,  manikins,  etc.  Indeed,  I 
am  shocked  to  learn  that  vivisection  is  practiced  in 
our  public  schools.  If  it  be  so,  then  our  public  school 
system  needs  renovation  and  reformation  of  a  very 
vigorous  character  in  this  direction.  Our  schools  are 
not  halls  of  dissection,  nor  do  we  pay  our  school 
taxes  in  order  to  develop  public  education  into  higher 
education.  I  am  sure  that  multitudes  of  right  minded 
citizens  of  all  degrees  and  all  opinions  will  rally  to 
your  support." 

Rt.  Rev.  Cortlandt  Whitehead,    Bishop  of  Pitts- 
burgh, Pa. : 
"  I    very    heartily    and    sincerely    add    my    protest 


22       AMERICAN  HUMANE   ASSOCIATION. 

against  such  methods  as  those  mentioned  in  your  cir- 
cular. 

"  To  my  mind  it  is  absurd  and  fanatic  to  make  use 
of  any  such  methods  with  children  of  public  school 
age,  and  I  have  no  sympathy  whatever  with  those 
who  would  advocate  them.  ...  So  far  from 
being  in  accord  with  the  best  interests  of  education,  I 
think  that  such  instruction  will  ultimately  be  of  great 
injury,  not  only  to  the  children  themselves  but  to 
society  in  general." 

Rt.   Rev.  Thomas  A.   Starkey,  Bishop  of  Newark  : 

"  In  my  judgment  it  is  of  the  greatest  importance 
that  all  children,  boys  especially,  be  taught  carefully 
and  with  painstaking,  humanity  to  animals.  It  is 
more  than  important,  it  is  vitally  necessary.  Chil- 
dren are  apt  to  be  thoughtless ;  boys  are  often  so  to 
the  verge  of  cruelty.  Any  exhibition,  therefore,  which 
is  deliberately  prepared  and  with  such  experiments  as 
you  describe,  must,  in  my  opinion,  have  the  effect  of 
encouraging  this  native  insensibility.  We  may  easily 
pay  too  dear  for  knowledge,  and  whatever  benefits 
may  accrue  in  the  way  of  added  knowledge  from  such 
methods  of  instruction  as  those  you  refer  to,  is  dearly 
purchased  by  the  loss  of  so  great  an  element  in  Chris- 
tian character  as  humanity ;  the  chivalric  feeling  of 
the  strong  for  the  helpless  and  weak." 

Rt.  Rev.  John  Scarborough,  Bishop  of  New  Jersey : 

"  I  am  entirely   opposed  to  vivisection,  whether  in 

schools  or  in  medical  colleges,   as  a  barbarous  and 


VIVISECTION  IN   SCHOOLS.  2$ 

cruel  thing,  unnecessary  and  brutalizing  in  its  tenden- 
cies, and  utterly  without  excuse." 

Rt.  Rev.  David  S.  Tuttle,  Bishop  of  Missouri : 

"  I  have  no  hesitation  in  saying  that  in  my  opinion 
the  practice  of  vivisection,  or  anything  approaching  to 
it,  in  the  infliction  of  pain  upon  the  lower  animal  crea- 
tion, as  a  means  of  education  of  our  children  in  the 
public  schools,  is  much  to  be  deplored,  and  should  be 
resisted  by  all  who  have  at  heart  the  good  of  the  race 
and  the  nation." 

Rt.  Rev.  A.  Cleveland  Coxe,  Bishop  of  Western  Neiu 
York  : 

"  I  am  shocked  even  to  read  the  inquiries  contained 
in  your  circular,  and  I  cannot  but  add  my  name  under 
the  conviction  that  such  abuses  are  as  horrible  in  view 
of  their  effect  on  the  young  as  they  are  in  view  of  the 
tortures  inflicted  on  the  brutes." 

Rt.  Rev.  W.  C.  Doane,  LL.D.,  Bishop  of  Albany,  N.  Y.: 

"I  do  not  believe  the  effect  upon  children  of  wit- 
nessing experiments  upon  living  animals  can  possibly 
be  good.  It  must  either  shock  their  sensibilities  if 
they  are  what  they  ought  to  be,  or  tend  to  encourage 
them  in  cruelty  if  they  have  that  unnatural  strain  in 
them.  It  seems  to  me  that  physiology  can  be  taught 
and  ought  to  be  taught  without  such  experiments,  but 
I  beg  leave  in  saying  this,  that  I  am  not  opposed  to 
vivisection,  when  it  is  conducted  under  the  restraints 
of  proper  regulations." 


24       AMERICAN  HUMANE   ASSOCIATION. 

Rt.    Rev.    N.    S.    Rulison,   Assistant  Bishop    Central 

Pennsylva7iia  : 

"  In  my  judgment  vivisection  and  the  killing  of  ani- 
mals by  and  before  children  attending  the  public 
schools,  and  also  the  dissection  of  animals  under  simi- 
lar circumstances  are  practices  which  cannot  be  really 
necessary  and  which  most  inevitably  blunt  the  sensi- 
bilities and  corrupt  the  character  of  the  young.  Prac- 
tices so  abhorent  to  the  finest  feelings  and  injurious  to 
the  best  character  should  be  suppressed  by  society." 

Rt.  Rev.  Thomas  Clark,  Bishop  of  Rhode  Island  : 
"  I  was  not  aware  that  any  such  atrocity  existed,  as 

the   introduction     of    vivisection    into    our    ordinary 

schools,  and  I  think  that  it  ought  to  be  forbidden  by 

law. 

"  If  physiology  cannot  be  taught  our  children  by  the 

use  of  manikins  and  illustrations,  it  will  be  well  not  to 

teach  it  at  all.     ...     I  am  not  sure  that  operating 

on  the  living  subject  is  ever  justifiable." 

Rt.  Rev.  Henry  Adams  Neely,  Bishop  of  Maine: 

"  In  regard  to  the  practice  of  vivisection  in  the 
presence  of  school  children,  let  me  say  in  one  word 
that  I  am  utterly  opposed  to  it." 

Rt.  Rev.  John  Williams,  LL.D.,  Bishop  of  Connecticut  : 

"  Without  entering  especially  into  particulars,  I  am 
quite  ready  to  say  that  in  my  view,  any  and  all  vivi- 
section and  killing  of  animals  before  children  of  pub- 
lic school  age,  and  also  their  dissection,  cannot  but  be 


VIVISECTION  IN   SCHOOLS.  2$ 

most    injurious    to    such    children    and    ought    to    be 
entirely  discouraged." 

Rt.  Rev.  Charles  H.  Fowler,  Bishop  M.  E.  Church, 

Mimieapolis : 

"  Cruelty  is  a  sign  of  barbarism.  Vivisec- 
tion engenders  cruelty  or  indifference  to  suffering. 
Therefore  it  reverses  the  order  of  the  refining  forces 
of  civilization." 

Rev.   Dr.  Morgan   Dix,   D.  C.  L.,    Rector  of  Trinity 

Church,  New    York  : 

" 1  was  not  aware  until  I  read  your  article  and  the 
circular  of  the  Association  that  the  method  of  instruc- 
tion to  which  they  refer  had  been  introduced  into 
our  schools.  Yet  I  cannot  say  that  I  am  surprised  at 
this  latest  development  of  the  exaggerated  and  fan- 
tastic spirit  of  our  times. 

"  The  system  of  education  of  the  young  appears  to 
need  a  fundamental  reform,  and  it  is  perhaps  fortu- 
nate that  fads  of  this  kind  should  be  introduced  as 
rapidly  as  possible,  in  order  that  the  need  of  such  a 
general  and  rational  overhauling  in  the  interests  of 
much  abused  childhood  may  become  more  thoroughly 
evident  to  the  general  view.  .  .  .  I  am  sure  that 
vivisection  should  be  prohibited  under  severe  penalty, 
except  when  performed  by  professional  men  licensed 
to  practice  it  for  undoubtedly  sufficient  reasons.  As 
to  the  dissection  of  animals  before  mixed  classes  of 
boys  and  girls  as  a  part  of  the  curriculum  of  instruc- 
tion in  our  common  schools,  I  fail  to  see  any  justifica- 


26       AMERICAN  HUMANE   ASSOCIATION. 

tion  for  it.  Children  need  to  be  taught  lessons  of 
kindness  and  consideration  for  the  creatures  which 
we  domesticate  and  of  which  they  make  pets  and  com- 
panions. 

"  It  is  not  necessary  that  the  average  boy  or  girl 
should  be  made  an  expert  in  anatomy,  physiology  or 
biology.  Such  studies  are  only  appropriate  for  those 
intended  for  the  degrees  in  surgery  and  medicine. 
I  feel  certain  that  all  that  is  necessary  for  the  time 
can  be  accomplished  by  models  and  illustrations,  and 
that  there  can  be  no  need  of  a  display  of  ether, 
knives,  blood,  wounds  and  death. 

"  Upon  the  whole,  I  confess  to  amazement  at  the 
infatuation  of  those,  whoever  they  may  be,  who  have 
introduced,  or  deem  it  wise  to  introduce,  such  methods 
into  an  already  overloaded  system  of  education,  and 
I  deprecate  with  all  earnestness  the  mischief  likely  to 
ensue  from  so  wide  a  departure  from  the  principles 
and  modes  of  sober  common  sense  and  useful 
teaching. 

"  I  trust  that  through  the  efforts  of  your  Society  the 
public  may  be  awakened  to  a  sense  of  the  harm  and 
wrong  done  to  the  rising  generation,  and  that  wise 
counsels  will  prevail  over  these  latest  outbursts  of  a 
well-intentioned  but  as  I  think  most  mischievous 
pedagogy." 

Rev.  Dr.  David  H.  Greer,  St.  Bartholomew's  Church, 

New   York: 

"  I  think  it  is  not  wise  to  introduce  vivisection  into 
the  public  schools.     It  is,  in  my  opinion,  for  children 


VIVISECTION  IN   SCHOOLS.  2J 

an  unnatural  and  pernicious  method  of  instruction, 
calculated  to  do  more  harm  than  good." 
Rev.  Dr.  Henry  Van  Dyke,  Pastor  Brick  Presby- 
terian Church,  Fifth  Ave.,  New  York  City : 
"  I  have  no  hesitation  in  expressing  my  opinion 
that  the  practice  of  vivisection  in  our  public  schools 
as  a  method  of  instructing  boys  and  girls  in  physiol- 
ogy, is  simply  monstrous.     .     . 

"  There  is  no  reason  in  the  world  why  our  common 
schools  should  teach  physiology  at  all,  except  in  its 
most  elementary  form.  Children  do  not  need  to  have 
all  the  reasons  for  keeping  the  skin  clean  explained 
to  them.  They  need  only  to  be  told  that  they  must 
wash  in  order  to  keep  well.  And  then,  if  they  go 
dirty,  a  little  judicious  chastisement  will  be  more 
effective  than  a  hundred  "lessons  in  physiology."  To 
try  to  teach  boys  and  girls  all  about  their  gastric  juice 
and  lymphatic  glands  in  the  common  schools,  is  to 
waste  the  taxpayers'  money  and  increase  the  mass  of 
half-knowledge  which  is  so  much  more  dangerous  than 
plain,  unassuming,  modest  ignorance." 
Rev.  Dr.  Wm.  N.  McVickar,  Philadelphia : 

"  I  deeply  sympathize  in  every  effort  which  is  being 
made  to  abolish  the  wrong  which  vivisection   is  com- 
miting,  not  only  on  its  dumb  victims,  but  as  well  upon 
those  who  in  any  way  participate  in  its  inflictions." 
Rev.  Dr.  John  Hall,  New  York  City  : 

"  It  is  not  needful  to  enter  into  details  ;  it  is  enough 
to  say  that  I  disapprove  of  such  processes  as  your  cir- 
cular describes,  and  for  the  reasons  suggested." 


28       AMERICAN  HUMANE   ASSOCIATION. 

Rev.  Frederick  R.  Marvin,  M.  D.,  Great  Barrington, 

Mass. : 

"Though  now  a  minister  of  the  Gospel,  I  was  edu- 
cated to  the  profession  of  medicine  and  was  graduated 
from  the  college  of  physicians  and  surgeons,  '  Medi- 
cal Department  of  Columbia  College,  N.  Y.,'  in  1870. 

"  In  the  class-room  I  saw  vivisections  so  unquali- 
fiedly cruel  that  even  now,  they  remain  in  my  memory 
as  a  nightmare.  I  am  persuaded  that  none  of  the  so- 
called  experiments  upon  living  animals  that  I  witnessed 
were  of  any  real  value  to  me  or  to  my  fellow  students. 

"  I  make,  therefore,  one  inclusive  answer  to  your 
five  questions  and  say  that  vivisection  is  seldom  if  ever 
justifiable,  and  is  never  to  be  tolerated  in  a  public  lec- 
ture or  in  the  presence  of  the  young,  who  are  almost 
sure  to  be  brutalized   thereby." 

Rev.  Dr.  Arthur  Brooks,  New  York  : 

"  I  am  very  thoroughly  in  sympathy  with  every  effort 
to  preserve  unharmed  the  delicacy  of  feeling  which 
belongs  naturally  to  the  young,  and  I  do  not  believe 
that  any  of  the  educational  methods  call  for  practices 
which  would  lead  to  an  opposite  result.  I  cannot 
think  that  any  knowledge  which  is  gained  by  as  great 
a  sacrifice  as  the  loss  of  tenderness  and  pity,  is  valu- 
able to  the  pupils  in  our  public  schools." 

Rev.  Dr.  Thomas  A.  Nelson,  Brooklyn,  N.  Y.  : 

"The  result  of  vivisection  before  the  eyes  and 
minds  of  immature  school  children  does  little  more 
than  gratify  a  morbid  and  cruel  curiosity.     It  leaves 


VIVISECTION  IN   SCHOOLS.  29 

behind  a  miserably  small  increment  of  knowledge  to 
compensate  for  the  irreparable  injury  to  those  finer 
instincts  and  sympathies  which  are  the  patent  of  our 
nobility  as  man,  and  which  lift  us  above  the  level  of 
that  inferior  life,  so  often  needlessly  tortured  to  gratify 
a  simulated  passion  for  knowledge." 
Rev.   E.  E.  Gordon,  Sioux  City,  la.  : 

"  Thirteen  years  experience  in  teaching  before  I 
became  a  minister  and  all  my  work  with  young  people 
since  that  time  convince  me  that  experiments  involv- 
ing the  infliction  of  pain  or  death  upon  animals  do 
tend  to  blunt  the  natural  sensibilities  of  children  who 
have  anything  to  do  with  them.  Emphasis  should  be 
placed  upon  the  sacredness  of  all  life." 

Rev    James  O.   S.  Huntington,    Holy  Cross  House, 
Westminster,  Md. : 

"  History  makes  it  quite  clear  that  such  experi- 
ments will  tend  to  blunt  the  sensibilities.  Education 
means  not  merely  crowding  facts  into  a  child  but 
making  him  more  humcme.'1'' 

Rev    Dr.  Charles  H.  Smith,  Buffalo,  N.  Y.  : 

"  I  am  very  glad  the  Society  is  taking  up  this  ques- 
tion with  earnestness,  for  this  is  one  of  the  subtle 
ways  in  which  the  evil  one  is  now  seeking  to  harden 
the  children's  hearts  and  take  away  that  feeling  of 
kindness  and  sympathy  which  goes  far  to  make  the 
man  and  the  Christian.  We  have  got  beyond  the 
stage  of  brutal  cruelty,  if  I  may  so  term  it.  There 
is    no    risk    now   in    undertaking  to   protect    animals 


30       AMERICAN  HUMANE   ASSOCIATION. 

against  the  cruelty  of  the  heartless  driver.  A  word  is 
all  that  is  necessary.  We  can  all  remember,  and  it 
was  not  so  very  long  either,  when  to  take  the  part  of 
the  animal  exposed  one  to  the  profane  and  vulgar 
rejoinder,  if  not  to  physical  danger,  from  inhuman 
beings.  Now  the  Society's  work  must  be  to  prevent 
this  subtler  form  of  cruelty,  which  is  carried  on  under 
the  guise  of  educational  advantage.  It  seems  to  me 
that  teachers  who  advocate  experiments  of  this  kind 
only  desire  to  iiiterest  the  children.  There  is  a  kind  of 
morbid  desire  they  cater  to,  without  taking  into  con- 
sideration the  terrible  effect  upon  the  learners." 
Rev.  Dr.  George  C.  Yeisley,  Hudsoit,  N.  Y.  : 

"  There  is  no  need  for  the  torture  of  living  animals 
to  teach  children  the  rudimentary  truths  of  physi- 
ology, and  even  if  there  were,  the  knowledge  would 
be  dearly  bought  at  the  expense  of  the  moral  health 
of  the  pupils." 

Rey:   Dr.   B.    F,    DeCosta,    St.  John  the  Evangelist 
Church  : 

"  I  agree  entirely  with  the  American  Humane 
Association  on  the  subject  contained  in  this  circular. 
The  practices  alluded  to  are  brutal  and  demoralizing 
and  against  the  best  interests  of  humanity." 

Rev.  Walker  Gwynne,  Summit,  N.  J. : 

"  I  had  no  idea  that  anywhere  in  any  country, 
much  less  in  this  one,  were  public  schools  made  the 
scene  of  such  brutalizing  experiments  as  the  dissec- 
tion of  living — even  if  etherized — animals.     I   gladly 


VIVISECTION  IN  SCHOOLS.  3 1 

endorse  the  protest  of  your  Society  against  this   prac- 
tice," 

Rev.     Dr.    Andrew    W,    Archibald,    Hyde   Park, 

Mass.  : 

"  My  boys  would  be  withdrawn  from  any  school 
where  there  was  opportunity  offered  to  see  living  crea- 
tures dissected  for  the  sake  of  illustrating  facts  in  the 
structure  of  animal  life.  My  whole  nature  revolts 
against  such  realism  in  educational  methods." 

Rev.   Henry  Bassett,  Providence,  R.  I.  : 

"  I  firmly  believe  that  the  exhibition  of  animal  suf- 
fering, whether  inflicted  under  the  guise  of  scientific 
information  or  not,  is  brutalizing  in  its  tendency  and 
does  beyond  question  blunt  the  finer  sensibilities  of 
those  engaged  in  the  practice  whether  they  be  chil- 
dren or  those  of  mature  years." 

Rev.  Geo.  K.  Hoover,  D.  D.,  Chicago,  III.: 

"  The  infliction  of  pain  or  death  upon  a  helpless 
creature  will  most  certainly  pervert  the  moral  nature 
of  children.  Time  was  when  people  could  lead  a 
victim  to  the  stake  and  witness  his  agony  with  com- 
parative complacency,  but  a  great  many  customs  that 
once  were  not  only  tolerated,  but  readily  accepted,  are 
now  utterly  banished  from  society." 

Rev.  Dr.  Herrick  Johnson,  Chicago,  III.: 

"The  opinion  of  the  American  Humane  Associa- 
tion is  my  opinion." 


32       AMERICAN  HUMANE   ASSOCIATION. 

Pres't  Ambrose    C.   Smith,   D.   D.,   Parsons   College, 

Fairfield,  Iowa  : 

"  While  not  opposed  to  vivisection.  .  .  .  yet  it 
ought  not  to  be  left  to  the  caprice  of  every  experimenter. 
To  let  every  tyro  torture  animals  in  the  name  of 
science,  and  to  exhibit  such  experiments  to  school 
children  is,  in  my  opinion,  revolting  and  outrageous." 

Rev.  Dr.  A.  S.  Freeman,  Haverstraw,  N.  Y.    (Pastor 

here  for  forty-eight  years)  : 

"  I  am  fully  in  accord  with  the  object  designed  to 
T)e  secured  by  the  American  Humane  Association." 

Rev.  Frederick  E.  Dewhurst,  Indianapolis,  Ind.  : 

"  Keep  the  scalpel  out  of  the  hands  of  children, 
and  give  them  Wordsworth  and  John  Burroughs  to 
read." 

Rev.  Charles  A.  Northrup,  Norwich,  Conn.  : 

"  I  am  heartily  in  sympathy  with  the  object  you  are 
seeking  to  attain,  viz.  :  a  public  opinion  averse  to 
such  methods  of  instruction." 

Prof.    Felix    Adler,    "  Society  for  Ethical   Culture, 

New  York  City : 

"With  the  spirit  and  purpose  of  the  questions  con- 
tained in  the  circular  of  the  American  Humane  Asso- 
ciation, I  sympathize  entirely,  with  one  exception. 
The  dissection  of  animals  after  death,  if  undertaken 
for  the  purpose  of  scientific  study  and  for  the  attain- 
ment of  knowledge  not  otherwise  attainable,  does  not 
appear  to  me  likely  to  operate  to  the  moral  injury  of 


VIVISECTION  IN   SCHOOLS.  33 

the  young  and  the  dulling  of  their  finer  feelings.  In 
elementary  schools  it  will  be  necessary  to  resort  to 
this  practice  frequently,  and  if  the  teacher  approaches 
the  subject  in  the  right  spirit,  I  should  apprehend  no 
evil  results." 

W.  W.   Story,  Rome,  Italy: 

"I  have  no  hesitation  in  saying  in  reply  to  the  first 
three  questions,  distinctly  '  No,'  and  to  the  last  two 
questions  to  answer  as  decidedly,  '  Yes.' 

"  All  the  facts  of  physiology  which  are  needful  or 
appropriate  to  be  learned  by  children,  can  in  my 
opinion  be  sufficiently  taught  by  means  of  diagrams, 
models,  and  drawings  with  explanations  by  the 
teacher  without  recourse  to  the  dissection  of  dead  or 
living  animals. 

"The  latter  course  would,  I  think,  naturally  tend  to 
blunt  their  sensibilities,  to  render  them  callous  to  suf- 
fering, and  to  induce  them  to  tamper  with  Life,  out  of 
an  excited  and  unhealthy  curiosity  without  any  corre- 
sponding benefit." 

Frederic  Harrison,   Esq.,  London,  Eng.  : 

"  I  am  surprised  and  shocked  to  learn  that  there 
can  exist  schools  of  any  kind  where  young  boys  and 
girls  are  allowed  to  witness  dissection  of  living  ani- 
mals under  any  circumstances  whatsoever.  I  will  not 
enter  on  the  deep  problem  of  vivisection  as  a  means 
of  research,  nor  do  I  concern  myself  with  the  various 
modes  of  producing  total  or  partial  insensibility. 

"  Men  may  differ  as  to  the  lawfulness  or  value  of 
3 


34       AMERICAN  HUMANE   ASSOCIATION. 

acutely  painful  experiments  on  living  animals,  when 
conducted  by  highly  trained  men  of  science  in  pursuit 
of  a  definite  scientific  problem  of  great  utility  to  the 
Jiuman  race.  And  it  is  possible  to  differ  as  to  the 
degree  and  efficiency  of  various  anaesthetics. 

"  But  I  should  have  thought  that  all  persons  of 
decent  feeling  and  of  practical  experience  of  the 
young  must  be  agreed  on  the  depraving  effect  of 
accustoming  boys  and  girls  to  see  death  inflicted,  to 
witness  organic  operations,  and  to  find  that  the 
ghastly  incidents  of  the  surgical  and  the  dissecting 
table  are  part  of  their  manuals  of  education. 

I  can  imagine  nothing  more  certain  to  blunt  their 
sense  of  humanity,  and  to  surround  their  intellectual 
life  with  degrading  association. 

"  Those  who  are  parents  or  moral  teachers  know  how 
difficult  it  is  to  extirpate  the  love  of  cruelty  to  which 
so  many  children  are  prone.  But  for  their  teachers 
to  familiarize  them  with  cruelty  as  part  of  their  train- 
ing, is  a  strange  perversion  of  the  moral  sense. 

"  I  care  not  whether  the  anaesthetics  are  adequate  or 
whether  the  dissection  is  of  dead  animals  —  both  are 
revolting  and  deeply  demoralizing  for  children.  And  the 
enormity  is  increased  where  the  animals  dissected  are 
the  companions  of  our  daily  life. 

"Auguste  Comte,  who  was  a  philosopher  as  well  as 

professor   of    science,    taught   us    that   the    domestic 

•brutes  we  train  to  our  service  are  in  a  sense  admitted 

to  our  humanity.     And  he  would  not  have  the  highest 

moral  teachers  of  the  young  defile  themselves  with  the 


VIVISECTION  IN   SCHOOLS.  35 

dissection  even  of  the  dead.  He  thought  this  was 
incompatible  with  the  profoundest  sense  of  reverence 
for  human  life. 

"  I  write  as  a  parent  and  teacher  of  long  standing, 
who  has  followed  courses  of  philosophy  of  many  emi- 
nent men,  and  who  has  practical  experience  of  bio- 
logical experiments." 

Miss  Frances  E.  Willard,  President,  and  Lady 
Henry  Somerset,  Vice-President,  of  the  "  World's 
Woman's  Christian  Temperance  Union,"  have  given 
the  following  answers  to  the  questions  propounded  by 
the  American  Humane  Association,  in  regard  to  the 
experimentation  upon  living  animals  in  the  teaching 
of  physiology  in  the   public  schools. 

i st.  In  our  judgment  it  must  in  the  nature  of  the 
case  blunt  rather  than  cultivate  the  natural  sensibili- 
ties of  children. 

2d.  The  exact  opposite  is  what  we  believe  it  is  the 
duty  of  the  teachers  of  children  to  inculcate. 

3d.  We  consider  it  a  distinct  damage  to  any  child 
who  witnesses  such  operations. 

4th.  It  is  our  earnest  belief  that  in  view  of  all  the 
harm  that  must  result  from  the  teaching  of  vivisection 
in  the  public  schools,  the  total  results  will  be  incalcu- 
lably more  valuable  if  teachers  would  pursue  the 
method  you  recommend. 

5  th.     By  all  means. 
Ernest  Bell,  M.  A.,  Lo?idon,  England: 

" 1  have  received  your  circular  telling  of  certain 
methods  of  instruction  used  in  schools,  and  have  duly 
laid  it  before  the  members  of  the   committee    of  the 


36       AMERICAN  HUMANE  ASSOCIATION. 

Humanitarian  League,  who  request  me  to  say  that  in 
your  efforts  to  check  the  increasingly  prevalent 
methods  of  teaching  physiology  through  demonstra- 
tions upon  living  animals,  you  have  their  unqualified 
approval  and  hearty  sympathy. 

'  The  man  who  has  the  most  pity  is  the  best  man ; 
is  the  one  most  disposed  to  all  social  virtues,  to 
nobleness  of  every  sort.  He  who  awakens  our  com- 
passion makes  us  better  and  more  virtuous,'  said  Less- 
ing,  the  great  critic ;  and  we  may  add  that  he  who 
deadens  our  pity  makes  us  lower  and  less  virtuous." 

Rt.  Hon.  James  Stansfeld,  M.  P.,  London : 

"  I  entirely  agree  with  the  views  of  the  American 
Humane  Association  as  expressed  in  their  circular." 

Hon.  George  W.  E.  Russell,  M.  P.,  London : 

"  I  have  the  deepest  dislike  and  distrust  of  all 
experiments  on  living  creatures.  To  practice  such 
experiments  before  children  and  young  people  is  in 
my  judgment  to  give  systematic  training   in   brutality. 

"  The  organized  destruction  of  natural  feeling  is 
producing  its  certain  results,  and  I  have  little  doubt 
that  experiments  not  distinguishable  from  human 
vivisection  are  now  of  frequent  occurrence  in  hos- 
pitals. I  wish  you  all  success  in  your  attempt  to  crush 
this  brutal  wrong." 

Leslie  Stephen,  Esq.,  London,  England.: 

"I  am  most  strongly  of  the  opinion  that  children 
should  be  encouraged  in  every  way  to  be  kind  to 
animals;    few    practical    lessons    in    morality    can,    I 


VIVISECTION  IN  SCHOOLS.  Z7 

should  judge,  be  more  useful.  The  dissection  of 
living  animals  before  children  appears  to  be  a  very- 
doubtful  way  of  impressing  such  lessons  upon  them." 
Dr.  George  Ebers,  Munich,  Bavaria: 

"  The  inquiry  to  the  Humane  Asssociation  I  beg  to 
answer  as  follows  :  — 

"i.  Vivisection  is  an  aid  to  science,  the  practice 
of  which,  if  pursued  for  earnest  scientific  research, 
should  not  be  hindered.  On  the  other  hand,  experi- 
ments which  cause  pain  and  even  death  to  helpless 
creatures,  when  made  in  the  presence  of  children  in 
schools,  I  consider  not  only  useless,  but  frivolous  and 
harmful  as  well. 

. "  The  parent  who  wishes  to  see  its  offspring  have  a 
loving  heart  will  teach  it  above  everything  to  abhor 
all  cruelty  to  animals  which  may  be  in  its  power. 

"  2.  The  child  knows  its  power  over  dumb  creatures 
only  too  well.  To  strengthen  this  knowledge  would 
be  useless  and  injurious,  for  the  child  should  be 
taught  to  respect  all  living  objects  and  to  remember 
that  they  were  created  to  enjoy  life.  I  would  add  that 
plants  should  be  included  in  the  above.  A  child  that 
will  pick  a  beautiful  flower  from  a  bush  and  trample 
upon  it,  I  think  has  not  a  good  heart,  and  I  know  has 
been  badly  brought  up.  A  child  that  will  torture  an 
animal  for  amusement  lacks  character. 

"3.  The  educator  who  wishes  to  familiarize  the 
pupil  with  the  sight  of  blood  and  the  act  of  dying  of 
animals  could  with  more  justice  burn  and  cut  the 
child  so  as  to  accustom  it  to  pain,   for  then  the  body 


38       AMERICAN  HUMANE  ASSOCIATION. 

alone  would  suffer,  and  not  also  the  soul.  There  are 
things  which,  to  become  accustomed  to,  blunt  the 
finer  sensibilities  and  lower  the  morals,  and  to  these 
things  belong,  foremost,  the  solemn  act  of  dying,  or 
passing  away  of  living  beings.  Should  the  child 
become  so  hardened  and  be  able  to  witness  the  tor- 
ture and  death  of  animals,  it  will,  when  grown  up,  and 
having  charge  of  the  fate  of  human  beings,  be  tyran- 
nical and  cruel." 

Hon.  Andrew  D.  White,   LL.  D.,    Minister  to  Rus- 
sia, late  President  of  Cornell  University,  N.  Y.  : 

"  While  I  acknowledge  that,  under  very  careful 
restrictions,  vivisection  may  be  allowed  to  men  whose 
character  and  eminence  in  appropriate  professions 
give  guarantees  that  their  work  will  be  as  humanely 
done  as  possible  and  to  the  best  ends,  I  am  utterly 
and  totally  opposed  to  the  loose  permission  to  children 
and  youth,  and,  indeed,  to  older  persons  not  within 
the  category  above  referred  to."  .  .  .  "In  my 
opinion,  experiments  involving  either  the  infliction  of 
pain  or  death  upon  helpless  animals  in  the  presence 
of  children  should  be  discouraged." 

William  Dean  Howells,  New  York: 

"  Vivisection  can  only  be  justified  in  the  cause  of 
Science  ;  and  though  the  children's  subjects  are  ether- 
ized and  suffer  no  pain,  they  lose  their  "  little  lives  " 
for  the  sake  of  imparting  a  little  learning,  as  useless  a 
knowledge,  as  vain  as  any  under  the  sun.  Children 
are  shielded  by  their  innocence  from  many  evils ;  but 


VIVISECTION  IN  SCHOOLS.  39 

I  should  think  such  lessons  must  tend  to  make   them 
hard  and  cruel.     The  whole   notion  of  such  instruc- 
tion is  detestable." 
Prof.    Daniel    G.    Brinton,    M.  D.,     University    of 

Pennsylvania  : 

"  I  believe  that  physiology  can  be  taught  in  no 
other  way  so  successfully  as  by  demonstration  on  the 
living  subject,  and  as  you  and  I  learned  it  as  physi- 
cians in  that  way,  I  think  that  we  can  both  answer 
that  our  "  natural  sensibilities  "  were  not  blunted. 

"  I  certainly  think  that  children  and  every  one 
ought  to  be  familiarized  with  the  sight  of  blood,  the 
pangs  of  disease,  and  the  solemn  event  of  dying. 
Death  and  pain  should  not  be  concealed ;  they  are 
the  greatest  of  all  educators  ;  for  they  alone  teach  us 
the  value  of  life  in  its  highest  measure. 

"  The  whole  tone  of  your  circular  is,  in  my  opinion 
(which  you  have  done  me  the  honor  to    ask),  contrary 
to  the  spirit  of  true  education." 
Martin  Kellogg,  A.  M.,  President  of  the   University 

of  California  : 

"  Everything  needful  can  be   almost  entirely  taught 
by  use  of  illustrations  or  manikins." 
Nathan  Green,   LL.  D.,    Chancellor  Cumberland  Uni- 
versity, Tennessee  : 

"  I  am  unalterably  opposed  to  the  dissection  of  ani- 
mals such  as  cats,  dogs,  etc.,  before  children.  The 
whole  business  of  vivisection  is  of  questionable  pro- 
priety, and  this  practice  before  children  for  the  pur- 
pose of  instruction  is  simply  barbarous." 


40       AMERICAN  HUMANE   ASSOCIATION. 

President  George  Williamson  Smith,  D.D.  LL.  D. 

Trmity  College,  Hartford : 

"  The  killing  of  animals  by   and  before  children  of 
public   school  age,   under  the  plea  of   instruction  in 
physiology,  I  am  persuaded  is  unnecessary." 
W.     J.     Holland,     Chancellor    Western    University   of 

Pemisylvania  : 

' 'As  the  head  of  a  university,  in  which  the  biologi- 
cal sciences  and  medicine  hold  a  prominent  place,  I 
desire  to  say  that  in  my  judgment  there  is  no  neces- 
sity whatever  of  familiarizing  children  of  school  age 
with  the  phenomena  of  death,  or  with  those  vital 
phenomena  which  are  best  illustrated  by  vivisection  ; 
and  I  question  whether  in  the  case  of  advanced  stu- 
dents, except  in  special  cases,  which  are  of  necessity 
very  rare,  vivisection  should  be  resorted  to." 

William  T.   Harris,  A.  M.,   LL.  D.,    Commissioner  of 

Education,   United  States : 

"  I  am  glad  to  learn  of  some  movement  against  a 
practice  too  widely  extended  of  dissecting  animals 
before  the  children  in  the  elementary  schools.  I 
think  it  well-nigh  useless,  as  far  as  teaching  children 
a  knowledge  of  anatomy  is  concerned,  and  at  the  same 
time  very  injurious  to  their  moral  and  aesthetic  feel- 
ings (especially  the  latter),  even  when  there  is  no 
cruelty  involved. 

"  In  the  high  school  or  academy  I  think  perhaps 
physiological  lessons  may  be  illustrated  by  the  dissec- 
tion of  animals  to  some  extent,  but  for  elementary 
schools  the  practice  is  strongly  objectionable." 


VIVISECTION  IN    SCHOOLS.  4 1 

President   William    M.  Blackburn,    A.  M.,    D.  D., 

Pierre  University,  Dakota : 

"  In  my  opinion  an  exaggerated  value  has  been 
placed  upon  the  study  of  physiology  in  the  lower 
grades  of  our  public  schools. 

"  The  health  lessons  and  those  on  temperance  do 
not  seem  dependent  upon  physiology  when  pupils  are 
not  capable  of  the  scientific  appreciation  of  the  sub- 
ject. I  have  doubts  whether  physiology  in  any  really 
scientific  form  or  method,  i.  e.,  as  a  science,  has  been 
of  any  very  practical  benefit  in  the  public  schools 
below  the  high  school  grades,'1 

President  J.   W.   Bissell,   D.  D.,     Upper  Iowa    Uni- 
versity : 

"  I  am  fully  in  sympathy  with  your  efforts  to  bring 
about  a  reformation  in  our  present  methods  of  teach- 
ing by  vivisection  and  dissection." 

President  Edward  D.   Eaton,   D.  D.,  LL.  D.,  Beloit 

College,  Beloit,   Wis.  : 

"  I  fully  agree  with  the  American  Humane  Society  as 
to   the   needlessness   and  injurious  tendencies  of  the 
vivisection  and  even  the  dissection  of  animals  by   and 
before  children  of  public  school  age." 
James    E.    Rhoads,    LL.  D.,    President  Bryn   Mawr 

College,  Bry?i  Mawr,  Pa.  : 

"  If  by  '  children  '  is  meant  persons  so  young  that 
they  cannot  be  expected  to  appreciate  the  serious 
nature  of  such  experiments,  the  effect  will  be  to  blunt 
their  sensibilities.  Such  '  children  '  should  never  see 
such  experiments. 


42       AMERICAN  HUMANE  ASSOCIATION. 

"  If  by  '  children  '  be  meant  those  legally  so  called? 
yet  from  eighteen  to  twenty-one  years  of  age,  these 
may  witness  such  experiments  provided  the  experi- 
ments are  not  simply  for  class  instruction  but  con- 
ducted by  competent  investigators  for  serious  ends. 
No  vivisection  in  any  form  should  be  used  for  such 
class  instruction  as  is  given  in  public  schools  or  high 
schools." 
President  W.   H.   Payne,  Ph.  D.,  LL.  D.,  U?iiversity 

of  Nashville,  Tenn. : 

"  Personally  and  on  deep  conviction,  I  am  opposed 
to  vivisection  as  practiced  in  ordinary  schools.  It  is 
a  needless  sacrifice  of  animal  life  -and  has  a  direct 
tendency  to  blunt  and  pervert  the  finer  instincts  and 
feelings  of  children." 

President  A.   Owen,   D.  D.,    "  Roger    Williams    Uni- 
versity" Nashville,  Tenn, : 

"  Whatever  dulls  the  sensations  to  the  suffering  of 
creatures  capable  of  suffering  is  in  every  way  harmful 
to  those  qualities  which  most  need  cultivation  and  are 
most  likely  to  receive  it.  Too  much  knowledge  of  the 
system  is  hurtful.  The  body  is  best  served  by  general 
obedience  to  the  laws  of  health  and  the  cultivation  of 
noble  and  worthy  sentiments." 
President  James  W.   Strong,   D.  D.,  Carlton  College, 

Northfield,  Minn.  : 

"  Vivisection  is  unnecessary  and  barbarous  and 
nothing  of  the  kind  is  allowed  in  connection  with  our 
institution." 


VIVISECTION  IN  SCHOOLS.  43 

President  J.   Braden,   D.  D.,    Central  Tennessee  Col- 
lege : 

"  There  is  cruelty  enough  in  our  land  at  present. 
Life  is  held  at  too  light  a  value  by  the  great  majority 
of  our  people." 

R.  O.   Beard,  M.  D.,  Professor  of  Physiology,  Univer- 
sity of  Minnesota  : 

"  To  your  questions  I  would  make  the  following 
answers  in  order  :  I  think  that  such  experiments  as 
are  referred  to  are  likely  to  blunt  the  natural  sensibili- 
ties of  children,  since  their  judgment  of  utility  is  not 
educated  sufficiently  to  act  independently  of  emotion 
excited  by  the  sight  of  suffering  or  death.  As  these 
emotions  are  not  susceptible  of  observation  or  con- 
trol, they  are  likely  to  be  destroyed  by  such  influences. 
In  the  teaching  of  children  in  public  schools  of  the 
rudimentary  truths  of  physiology  and  hygiene,  every- 
thing necessary  can  be  taught  by  illustrations,  mani- 
kins, models,  and  specimens  removed  from  dead  ani- 
mals. 

"  I  appreciate  the  conservative  character  of  your 
circular,  the  more  so  since  it  compares  favorably  with 
the  extreme  utterances  of  anti-vivisection  societies. 
I  believe  in  the  utility  and  morality  of  vivisection 
under  suitable  restriction  in  scientific  schools,  but  I 
believe  also  that  the  practice  needs  regulation.  In 
public  schools  I  think  it  both  undesirable  and 
unnecessary." 


44       AMERICAN  HUMANE  ASSOCIATION. 

Rev.  J.   Percival,   D.  D.,  Head  Master  Rugby  School, 

England: 

"  I  am  surprised  to  hear  that  the  method  of  instruc- 
tion by  means  of  experiment  on  living   animals   is   in 
any  degree  tolerated  in  the  United   States.     Happily 
we  are  free  from  it  in  England." 
Prof.  Samuel  Hart,   Trinity  College,  Hartford: 

"  I  find  myself  entirely  in  agreement  with  the  prin- 
ciples and  practices  which  the  American  Humane 
Association  maintains.  I  hope  that  its  advocacy  may 
have  a  strong  influence  on  public  opinion  in  a  practi- 
cal way." 
Edward  N.  Packard,  Syracuse,  N.  Y.  : 

"  I  have  very  decided  opinions  about  the  matter, 
and  am  strongly  opposed  to  a  practice  which  seems  to 
be  prevailing  to  some  extent  in  our  cities.  My  atten- 
tion was  called  to  it  in  this  city,  and  our  Ministerial 
Association  in  a  private  way  sent  me  to  learn  about 
the  practice  here  in  the  High  School.  The  agent  of 
the  Society  for  the  Prevention  of  Cruelty  to  Animals 
was  asked  by  the  teacher  of  physiology  in  the  '  High ' 
to  let  her  have  live  dogs  for  the  purpose  of  experi- 
mentation at  school.  He  refused  to  do  it.  Further 
inquiry  led  to  the  fact  that  there  was  now  no  vivi- 
section done,  but  that  it  had  been  done.  The  Board 
of  Education  assured  us  that  it  would  not  be  allowed. 
I  learned  from  the  mother  of  a  child  in  the  Auburn 
High  School  that  her  son  was  made  sick  by  seeing 
the  blood,  etc.,  in  the  operations  at  the  school,  and 


VIVISECTION  IN  SCHOOLS.  45 

dreaded  the  day  to  come  for  a  repetition.  I  heard 
that  it  had  been  practised  for  a  good  while  in  some 
Massachusetts  schools." 

Prof.  Henry  C.  Adams,  Ph.  D.,  University  of  Michigan : 

"  I  agree  fully  so  far  as  I  understand  it  with  the 
position  taken  by  the  American  Humane  Associa- 
tion. When  students  have  sufficiently  advanced  to 
understand  the  scientific  problems  now  claiming  the 
attention  of  the  medical  fraternity  about  psychology, 
it  may  be  well  to  introduce  them  to  vivisection  ;  so  far 
as  school  children  are  concerned,  it  seems  to  me  that 
a  great  wrong  is  being  done  the  children  themselves 
by  this  means  of  education." 

Prof.  Francis  E.  Abbott,  Cambridge,  Mass.  : 

"  While  I  am  not  prepared  to  condemn  all  vivisec- 
tion, when  conducted  by  scientific  men  for  strictly 
scientific  purposes  and  under  such  conditions  as  to 
insure  a  minimum  of  pain,  I  have  no  hesitation  in 
condemning  it  unqualifiedly  and  severely,  when  it  is 
carrried  on  in  the  presence  of  children,  even  under 
the  pretence  of  instruction.  Its  tendency  must  be 
to  brutalize  them,  and  this  is  not  atoned  for  by  any 
mere  increase  of  their  knowledge.  Legitimate  instruc- 
tion must  be  in  accordance  with  morality,  and  it  is 
immoral  to  inflict  pain  needlessly  on  helpless  animals. 
I  deny  the  need  of  inflicting  it  for  mere  illustration 
and  instruction,  and  can  only  with  extreme  reluctance 
sanction  it  for  purposes  of  discovery  that  shall  end  in 
lessening  it. 


j\6      AMERICAN  HUMANE  ASSOCIATION 

"At  a  time  when  the  need  of  teaching  natural  mor- 
ality, independent  of  all  positive  religions,  is  coming 
to  be  widely  seen  and  felt  as  essential  to  the  conduct 
of  public  schools  supported  by  universal  taxation,  I 
consider  it  little  short  of  a  crime  to  teach  children  to 
be  cruel,  or  even  obtuse  to  the  sight  of  suffering. 
And  I  sincerely  applaud  the  American  Humane  Asso- 
ciation for  doing  what  it  can  to  prevent  this  crime." 
Prof.  F.  Tracy,  Toronto   University : 

"  In  Canada,  we  have  no  such  experiments  as  those 
spoken  of  in  our  public  schools." 

Prof.  A.  J.  Granger,  Newton  High  School,  Mass. : 

"  As  a  teacher  I  should  make  my  answer  emphatic. 
There  can  be  no  reason  for  such  experiments  in  our 
public  schools.  I  am  glad  you  are  fighting  this  heresy 
in  modern  education." 

Prof.    John    B.    Clark,    Amherst    College,  Amherst, 

Mass.  : 

"  I  am  entirely  opposed  to  vivisection  in  any  ordi- 
nary schools  for  children." 

Prof.  Alfonse  N.  Van  Daell,  Institute  of  Technology, 

Boston,  Mass.  : 

"  I  believe  that  physiology,  properly  so  called, 
ought  not  to  find  a  place  in  any  school  below  the  col- 
lege grade.  The  elements  of  hygiene  can  and  ought 
to  be  taught,  although  under  present  regulations  the 
study,  in  my  opinion,  is  begun  too  early. 

"  1  am  not  opposed  to  necessary  experimentation 
in  colleges,  or  schools  of  the  same  grade,  but  in  pub- 


VIVISECTION  IN   SCHOOLS.  47 

lie  schools  experimentation  upon  living  animals  is 
unnecessary  or  useless,  with  the  possible  exception 
of  the  senior  classes,  where  something  of  the  real 
purpose  of  natural  science  and  comparative  anatomy 
may,  under  certain  circumstances,  be  admissible." 
George  A.  Bacon,    of  Allyn    6°    Bacon,    Publishers, 

Boston,  Mass.  : 

"  To  my  thinking  there  is  absolutely  no  excuse  for 
killing  animals  in  order  to  teach  anatomy  or  physi- 
ology in  our  schools.  In  the  first  place  the  practice 
in  dissection  which  pupils  get  amounts  to  nothing, 
and  they  are  just  as  likely  to  come  to  wrong  as  to 
right  conclusions  from  their  observation. 

"  There  is  certainly  a  distinct  demoralizing  effect 
produced  by  familiarity  with  these  details.  Any 
pupil  can  get  from  the  butcher's  shop  a  sheep's  heart 
and  lungs  or  brain,  or  sample  of  bone,  muscle  or 
other  tissue.  All  these  things  lend  interest  to  the 
subject ;  they  have  no  appreciable  bad  effect.  The 
whole  object  of  teaching  these  subjects  in  school,  or 
anywhere  outside  of  a  medical  college,  should  be 
simply  hygiene.  Anatomy  and  physiology  should  be 
made  subordinate;  adjuncts  and  handmaids  to 
hygiene. 

"  I  must  confess,  however,  that  I  do  not  expect  my 
protest  or  yours  to  have  very  much  effect.  The  cry 
of  the  age  is  all  for  research,  laboratory  practice,  and 
that  sort  of  thing.  Nothing  is  supposed  to  be  of  any 
value  if  learnt  in  the  old-fashioned  way.  The  amusing 
part   of    the    thing,    however,    lies    in   the   fact   that 


48      AMERICAN  HUMANE  ASSOCIATION. 

investigators,  unless   very  skilful,  are  far  more  apt  to 

get  wrong  ideas  from   direct  investigation,  than  from 

books." 

Prof.  H.  H.  Freer,  Cornell  College,  Mt.  Vernon,  Iowa  : 

"  It  is  time  to  call  a  halt  upon  the  infliction  of  pain 
on  animals  or  wantonly  killing  them  for  the  purpose 
of  teaching  anatomy,  physiology  or  hygiene, to  young 
children.  All  that  children  need  to  know  on  these 
subjects  can  be  taught  without  resorting  to  processes 
that  will  blunt  the  sensibilities,  deprave  the  taste  and 
brutalize  the  whole  nature  of  children. 

The  boy  murderer,  Pomeroy,  was,  I  believe,  from 
early  life  accustomed  to  the  scenes  of  the  slaughter- 
house, and  his  environment  no  doubt  was  responsible 
for  his  cruel  and  murderous  tendencies. 

"  Your  agitation  does  not  involve  the  general  ques- 
tion of  vivisection,  and  should  receive  the  support  of 
all  humane  persons." 

Prof.  Ray   Greene   Huling,    Head  Master  English 
High  School,   Cambridge,  Mass.  : 

"  Experiments  of  the  sort  you  describe  may  tend 
to  blunt  the  sensibilities  of  children  if  performed  in 
their  presence. 

"  Your  questions  have  been  carefully  phrased  and 
chosen.  They  still  leave  opportunity  for  me  to  say  that 
I  should  not  object  to  the  use  of  oysters,  sea  anemones 
and  similar  material  in  the  study  of  biology  by  pupils 
and  teachers.  ...  In  my  present  school,  with 
the  facilities  for  comparative  study  of  animals  afforded 


VIVISECTION  IN  SCHOOLS.  49 

by  the  Agassiz  Museum,  I  prefer  such  comparative 
study  to  a  detailed  examination  of  internal  structure 
of  familiar  animals.  Human  physiology  is  illustrated 
by  parts  of  the  pig,  the  sheep  and  the  ox,  regularly,  as 
also  by  the  manikin,  the  skeleton  and  pictures.  Dis- 
section  is  not  practised." 

Albert  M.  Hilliker,   Washington,  D.  C.  : 

"  In  answer  to  the  questions  of  your  circular  letter 
will  say  that  I  think  such  experiments  as  you  refer  to 
must  necessarily  blunt  the  sensibilities  of  children 
witnessing  them. 

"  It  is  very  doubtful  whether  vivisection  can  be 
justified  on  any  ground  as  practised  by  any  one  under 
any  circumstances,  and  I  feel  sure  that  if  ever  practised 
it  should  be  by  and  in  the  presence  of  specialists 
only." 

Prof,  F.  B.  Knapp,  Duxbury,  Mass, : 

"  I  believe  in  having  boys  who  are  especially  inter- 
ested in  natural  history  dissect  animals  already  dead. 
I  do  not  believe  in  vivisection  before  even  medical 
students,  but  I  suppose  it  is  wise  for  scientists  to 
resort  to  it  to  a  limited  extent." 

John  E.  Kimball,    late    Sicperintendent   Schools,  New- 
ton, Mass.  : 

"The  practice  referred  to  is  unnecessary,  painful  in 
the  extreme  to  sensitive  natures,  cruel  and  demoral- 
izing. In  my  experience  as  Superintendent  of  Schools 
I  have  heard  of  instances  of  fainting  and  real  suffer- 


50      AMERICAN   HUMANE    ASSOCIATION. 

ing  to  susceptible  children  in  connection  with  this 
very  reprehensible  practice.  If  there  is  one  phase  of 
culture  outside  the  usual  curriculum  in  our  public 
schools  which  should  be  of  constant  care,  it  is  the 
habit  of  uniform  kindness  to  the  lower  orders  of 
animate  creation,  and  this  is  not  consistent  with  a 
practice  which  must  blunt  the  sensibilities  of  all,  if  it 
does  not  in  some  cases  tend  to  develop  types  of 
brutality  which  from  time  to  time  shock  society." 

Wm.   F.    Phelps,   late  Principal  State   Normal  School, 
St.   Paul,   Minn.,  formerly   Principal   State  Normal 
School,  Trenton,  New  Jersey : 
"  As  an  educator  I  would  not  allow   such  cruelties 

to  be  practised.     Experiments    upon   living    animals 

should  be  forbidden  by  statute." 

Prof.  W.  N.  Ferris,  Principal  Ferris  Industrial  School, 

Michigan  : 

"  I  am  in  sympathy  with  the  work  of  your  Associa- 
tion and  do  all  in  my  power  to  advance  its  interests. 
I  enroll  about  a  thousand  pupils  every  year,  two- 
thirds  teachers.  I  try  to  impress  upon  them  the  prin- 
ciples involved  in  your  Association." 
Wm.  J.  Cox,  Supermtendent  of  Schools,  Hancock,  Mich. : 

"  I  am  heartily  in  favor  of  the  good  work  your 
Society  is  doing." 

Edward  S.  Breck,  Ph.  D.,  Boston,  Mass. : 

"  Although  I  am  in  favor  of  vivisection  under  cer- 
tain very  rigid  restrictions  (such  as  limitation  to  a 
few  recognized  scientific  institutions),  I  am  very  much 
against   that    or  anything  like   it  for  young  people." 


VIVISECTION  IN  SCHOOLS.  5  I 

.  ,  .  .  "  I  think  dissection  very  useful  and  instruc- 
tive, but  it  should  be  confined  to  the  highest,  or  the 
two  highest  classes  in  the  high  schools ;  and  even 
here  its  moral  effect  on  the  pupils  should  be  care- 
fully noted  by  the  instructors  and  reported  on." 
H.  D.  Lloyd,  Editor  "  Chicago   Tribune:" 

"  Experiments  involving  infliction  of  pain  or  death 
tend  to  blunt,  and  therefore  to  brutalize,  children  in 
their  human  relations. 

"  I  do  not  live  up  to  the  doctrine,  but  I  believe 
that  our  physical  as  well  as  sympathetic  evolution  is 
moving  to  the  point  at  which  we  will  be  as  incapable 
of  killing  animals  for  food  for  the  body  as  for  food 
the  the  mind." 
James  Jeffrey  Roach,  Editor  "Pilot"  Boston,  Mass.: 

"I  consider  the  vivisection  of  animals  for  the 
ostensible  instruction  of  children  to  be  cruel,  useless 
and  demoralizing  in  the  extreme,  and  that  everything 
necessary  for  the  teaching  of  physiology  could  be  as 
clearly  and  more  humanely  taught  by  the  use  of  illus- 
trations and  manikins.  .  .  .  It  is  not  vitally 
important  that  children  should  know  all  about  their 
own  internal  organs ;  it  is  absolutely  important  that 
they  should  be  taught  mercy,  even  to  the  lowest  of 
living  things." 

A.  E.  Dunning,  Editor  "  Congregationalist : " 

"The  representatives  of  the  Congregationalist  do  not 
think  vivisection  is  wise  or  humane  when  conducted 
before  classes  of  boys  and  girls  in  the  schools.  In- 
deed, the  matter  seems  to  me  put  forcibly  and  truth- 
fully in  the  statement  with  which  your  circular  closes." 


52        AMERICAN  HUMANE  ASSOCIATION. 

J.  W.  Warr,  Editor  "Western  Ploughman:" 

"  The  killing  of  animals  before  children  is  a  bar- 
barous practice  that  ought  not  to  be  tolerated  in  the 
advanced  educational  institutions  of  the  nineteenth 
century." 

Rev.  Samuel  J.  Barrows,  Editor  "  Christian  Register" 
Boston,  Mass.  : 

"  I  believe  it  to  be  a  serious  mistake  to  encourage 
children  to  any  irresponsible  use  of  their  power  over 
the  lower  forms  of  life. 

"Children  should  be  taught  that  might  is  not 
right,  and  that  the  same  laws  of  love,  mercy  and 
justice,  which  apply  to  human  beings  should  be 
applied  to  the  animal  creation  as  far  as  possible. 

"  It  seems  to  me  that  it  is  an  abuse  of  the  name  of 
education  to  familiarize  children  with  the  infliction 
upon  animals  of  mortal  wounds,  etc.,  under  the  pre- 
tence of  imparting  scientific  knowledge.  An  animal 
is  not  to  be  treated  as  a  toy  which  a  child  is  encour- 
aged to  take  apart  just  to  see  how  it  is  put  together. 

"The  development  of  the  spirit  of  love,  mercy  and 
justice  is  more  important  than  to  turn  the  school- 
room into  a  butcher's  shop  or  a  dissecting-room,  to 
gratify  an  intellectual  curiosity. 

"  Physiology  should  have  its  place  in  school  instruc- 
tion, but  quite  as  important  is  the  subject  of  ethics, 
which  includes  not  only  our  duties  to  our  fellow- 
beings,  but  also  our  duties  to  animals." 


VIVISECTION  IN  SCHOOLS.  53 

Fin  ley  Ellingwood,  M.  D.,  Editor  "Medical  Times," 

Chicago,  III.  : 

"  I  am  greatly  in  favor  of  physiology  being  taught 
children,  but  I  can  see  no  excuse  whatever  for  adopt- 
ing a  course  advanced  enough  to  illustrate  by  vivi- 
section. In  the  opinion  of  the  Association  I  coop- 
erate most  heartily." 
S.  T.  Pickard,  Editor  "Portland  Tra?iscript"  Portla?id, 

Me.: 

"  I  am  most  decidedly  opposed  to  vivisection  and 
dissection  before  children  of  public  school  age. 
Many  grown  people  would  be  much  happier  if  they 
knew  less  about  the  possibility  of  disorder  in  the 
organs  wisely  put  out  of  sight,  in  order,  perhaps,  that 
they  might  be  out  of  mind." 
Dr.     H.     W.     Pierson,     Editor    "Medical    Advance" 

Chicago : 

"  Promiscuous  vivisection  is  uncalled  for  and  serves 
to  gratify  the  baser  elements  in  our  nature,  whether 
it  be  children  or  adults,  and  should  be  condemned  by 
all.  Individuals  preparing  for  the  special  study  of 
the  subject  of  physiology  will  not  have  their  finer 
senses  blunted  by  study  of  the  mechanism  of  the 
body  in  life.  To  all  others  this  should  be  denied,  by 
law  if  necessary. 

"  Under  sixteen  years  of  age  it  is  not  wise  to  make 
children  familiar  with  suffering  of  any  kind.  Charts 
and  maps  are  better  for  the  general  teaching  of  the 
rudiments  than  the  living  subject,  until  the  pupil  is 
advanced  beyond  the  elementary  exigencies  of  the 
study." 


54       AMERICAN  HUMANE  ASSOCIATION 

Richard  Howell,  Editor  "Bridgeport  Herald"  Bridge- 
port, Conn.  : 

"  There  are  those  upon  whom  vivisection  will  have 
a  horrifying  effect,  but  there  are  many  in  whom  the 
practice  in  public  schools  will  develop  an  inordinate 
love  to  be  cruel  to  dumb  animals. 

"  The  plastic  mind  of  the  public  school  pupil  is  as 
sensitive  to  an  impression  as  the  dry  plate  of  a  pho- 
tographer's outfit;  and  the  impression  which  vivisection 
makes  upon  one  of  these  young  minds  may  develop 
frightful  traits  of  character." 

Ernest  H.  Morgan,  Editor  " Roxbury  Gazette"  R ox- 
bury,  Mass.  : 

"  I  am  against  vivisection,  even    among   advanced 
students,  and  utterly  and  uncompromisingly  opposed 
to  it  among  pupils  in  public  schools." 
J.  Silversmith,  Editor  "  Occident,"  Chicago,  III.: 

"  I  believe  the  rudiments  of  physiology  and  hygiene 
can  be  taught  very  well  without  resort  to  vivisection." 
Rev.  E.  B.  Graham,  Editor  "Midland,"  Chicago,  III.  : 
"  Children  should  not  be  allowed  to  see  game  shot 
by  cruel  sportsmen,  or  domestic  fowls  killed  even  for 
food,  and  much  less  should  they  become  familiar  with 
cruelty  in  the  interests  of  education." 
Milton  E,  Smith,  Editor  "  Church  News,"  Washing- 
ton, D.  C.  : 

"  I  fully  sympathize  with  any  movement  which  tends 
to  make  children  realize  that  it  is  ungentlemanly, 
inhuman  and  contrary  to  the   spirit  of  civilization  to 


VIVISECTION  IN  SCHOOLS.  55 

inflict    unnecessary    suffering     upon     either    man    or 
brute." 

Dr.  M.  L.  Holbrook,  Editor  "Herald  of  Health  :  " 

"  I  do  not  think  the  slightest  good  in  practice  ever 
comes  to  children  from  the  experiments  alluded  to. 
They  are  unnecessary.  Study  animals  alive,  acting 
naturally,  and  some  good  can  be  learned.  Studying 
them  in  the  throes  of  pain  cannot  help  teach  hygiene." 

Wm.  Norton  Payne,  Editor  "Dial"  Chicago,  III. : 

"  In  my  opinion  dissection  has  a  necessary  place  in 
the  school  work,  but  vivisection  of  vertebrates  should 
not  be  tolerated." 

J.  W.  Bashford,  Mt.   Vernon  St.,  Boston,  Mass.  : 

"  I  believe  the  older  children  in  our  public  schools 
would  be  benefited  by  actual  knowledge  of  the 
structure  of  animals,  and  would  gain  thereby  greater 
reverence  for  all  life.  But  I  think  in  general  that  it 
would  be  wise  that  demonstrations  be  upon  animals 
used  for  food." 
Charles  W.  Stone,  Boston,  Mass.  ; 

"I  wish  I  had  time  to  set  forth  at  length  my  utter 
detestation  of  this  outrageous  perpetration  in  the 
name  of  education." 

Miss  Helen  C.  Hawkins,  Tolland,  Conn. : 

"  My  experience  as  a  teacher  has  convinced  me  that 
boys  are  apt  to  treat  animals  ungently  and  even 
cruelly.  In  most  cases  the  thought  of  suffering  on 
the  part  of  the  animal  has  never  presented  itself  until 


56      AMERICAN  HUMANE  ASSOCIATION 

it  has  been  presented  by  those  who  have   most  to  do 
with  their  early  training." 

Mrs.  Ednah  D.  Cheney,  Boston,  Mass.  ; 

"  I  think  it  hardly  wise  to  introduce  much  special 
physiological  instruction  into  schools  of  the  lower 
grades,  unless  under  the  care  of  most  judicious 
teachers,  which  we  can  hardly  expect  all  to  be.  In 
general,  I  should  object  to  experimenting  with  living 
subjects,  as  of  little  use  to  such  young  pupils  and 
liable  to  great  abuse.  Observations  regarding  the 
life  and  habits  of  animals  I  think  more  valuable,  and 
this  can  be  much  encouraged." 

T,  A,  Abbott,  Esq.,  St.  Paul,  Minn.  : 

"  Our  St.  Paul  schools,  although  having  a  depart- 
ment of  physiological  science  of  the  highest  excel- 
lence, are  opposed  in  theory  and  practice  to  vivi- 
section." 

Fred  P.  Bagley,  Esq.,  Chicago,  III. : 

"  The  truths  of  physiology  can  be  taught  as  well  by 
the  use  of  illustrations  and  manikins  as  by  dissection ; 
there  is  no  necessity  to   resort   to   experiments   upon 
living  creatures." 
Hon.  Austin  V.  Eastman,  St.  Paul,  Minn. : 

"  I  most  heartily  agree   with    the   suggestions   con- 
tained in  the  circular,  and  am  strenuously  opposed  to 
conducting  experiments  in  public  schools  in  the   man- 
ner outined  therein." 
Charles  A.  Hamlin,  Esq.,  Syracuse,  N.    Y.  : 

"All  experience  proves  that  familiarity  with  cruelty, 


VIVISECTION  IN  SCHOOLS.  S7 

pain,  and  suffering  renders  men  increasingly  indiffer- 
ent to  it,  and  withers  the  sense  of  pity." 
Miss  Alice  M.  Longfellow,  Cambridge,  Mass. : 

"  It  would  seem  to  be  of  far  greater  value  to  lay 
stress  upon  the  importance  of  observing  and  under- 
standing a  living  creature,  instead  of  taking  away  the 
essential  element  of  its  beauty  and  interest.  It  seems 
to  be  poor  humanity  and  poor  science  to  think  either 
is  served  by  destruction  instead  of  by  preservation." 
Clifford  W.  Barnes,  Chicago,  III.  : 

"Having  studied  physiology  and  hygiene  by  the  use  of 
illustrations  and  manikins,and  having  afterwards  studied 
in  a  medical  college  and  had  experiments  in  vivisec- 
tion, I  can  speak  with  assurance  when  I  say  that  no 
child  in  the  public  schools  needs  to  resort  to  experi- 
mentation on  living  creatures  in  order  to  obtain  a 
perfectly  satisfactory  and  sufficient  knowledge  of  the 
essentials  of  physiology." 
Prof.  John  Trowbridge,  S.  D.,  Harvard    University \ 

Cambridge : 

"  I  have  no  hesitation  in  saying  that  I  agree 
entirely  with  the  position  that  teaching  physiology  by 
vivisection  in  public  schools,  is  brutalizing  and 
unnecessary." 

In  response  to  the  circular,  replies  were  received 
from  a  large  number  of  persons,  for  the  most  part 
expressing  sympathy  and  accordance  with  the 
position  of  the  American  Humane  Association  on 
the    question    of    vivisection    in    schools,    but    of 


58      AMERICAN  HUMANE  ASSOCIATION. 

whose  valued  letters  considerations  of  space  pre- 
vent more  than  a  brief  acknowledgment.  In 
many  cases,  too,  the  circular  was  answered  simply 
by  monosyllables  or  marginal  notes.  To  the 
following  persons,  therefore,  the  thanks  of  the 
American  Humane  Association  are  also  due  for 
responses  to  its  circular : 

Prof.  Dorman  B.  Eaton,  New  York. 

E.  L.  Godkin,   Esq.,  Editor  of  "  New    York  Evening 

Post." 
Alfred   H.   Love,    Preside7it  American  Peace  Society, 

Philadelphia,  Pa. 
Floyd  W.   Tomkins,  Jr.,  Rector  Grace  Church,  Provi- 
dence, R.  I. 
Rev.  William  Brunton,    Whitman,  Mass. 
Rev.  Dr.   Henry  Blanchard,  Portland,  Maine. 
Rev.  Dr.   E.   M.   Hickok,   Sharon,  Mass. 
Rev.  L.  Weiss,   Columbus,  Ohio. 
Rev.   Henry  Cohen,  Galveston,   Texas. 
Rev.   Endicott  Peabody,  A.  M.,    Groton  School,  Gro- 

ton,  Mass. 
Caroline    T.    Haven,     Working-man's    School,    New 

York  City. 
J.  Van  Inwagen,  Esq.,   Chicago,  III. 
G.    E.    Morrow,    President    Agricultural  Experiment 

Station,  University  of  Illinois. 
Rt.   Rev.  George  D.  Gillespie,  Bishop  of  Western 

Michigan. 
Rt.  Rev.  Hugh  Miller  Thompson,  Bishop  of  Missis- 

sippi. 


VIVISECTION  IN  SCHOOLS.  59 

Rt.  Rev.  Jos.  Blount  Cheshire,  Jr.,  Bishop  of  North 

Carolina. 
Rt.  Rev.  Henry  B.  Whipple,  Bishop  of  Minnesota. 
Rt.  Rev.   M.   A.   DeWolfe  Howe,  LL.  D.,  Bishop  of 

Perms ylvania. 
Rt.  Rev.  Thomas  Bowman,  Bishop  M.  E.  Church,  St. 

Louis,  Mo. 
Rev.  Dr.  A.  S.  Fiske,  Ithaca,  N.  Y. 
Rev.   Dr.  D.  F.  Bonner,  Pastor  Presbyterian  Church, 

Florida,  N.   Y. 
Rev.  Edward  C.  Hood,   Wrentham,  Mass. 
Rev.  Austin  S.  Garver,    Worcester,  Mass. 
Rev.   Dr.  Egbert  C.   Smyth,  Andover,  Mass. 
Rev.   Dr.   C.   H.   Eaton,  New  York  City. 
Rev.   Paul  Van  Dyke,  Northampton,  Mass. 
Prof.  William  Knight,    University  of  St.  Andrew's, 

Scotland. 
Rabbi  Max  Wertheirmer,  Dayton,  O. 
Rev.   William  R.   Campbell,  Roxbury,  Mass. 
Rev.   Dr.  George  W.  Wood,  Ml.  Morris,  N.   Y. 
Rey.   Dr.   I.  J.   Lansing,  Park  Street  Church,  Boston, 

Mass. 
Rev.   Dr.  William  R.   Campbell,  Roxbury,  Mass. 
Rev.  Francis  M.  Collier,  Denver,  Col. 
Rev.   Daniel  L.   Furber,  Newton  Centre,  Mass. 
Rev.   Dewitt  M.   Benham,  Pittsburgh,  Pa. 
Rev.   E.   C.   Ewing,  Danvers,  Mass. 
Rev.  George  Sexton,  D,  D.,  M.  D.,  Dunkirk,  N.  Y. 
Rev.   Dr.  Joseph  H.  Jenckes,  Indianapolis,  Ind. 
Rev.  Stephen  Peebles,  Sata?ik,  Col. 
Rev.  Wm.  E.  Barton,  Shawmut  Church,  Boston,  Mass. 


60       AMERICAN  HUMANE  ASSOCIATION. 

Rev.  Dr.  Edward  Abbott,   Cambridge,  Mass. 

Rev.  Alsop  Leffingwell,  Philadelphia,  Pa. 

Rev.  Dr.  Alex.  G.  Wilson,  Pres.  Theological  Sem- 
inary, Omaha. 

Rf.v.  Austin  B.  Bassett,    Ware,  Mass. 

Rev.  Dr.  James  H.  Potts,  Editor  "Michigan  Christian 
Advocate;'  Detroit,  Mich. 

Rev.  Paul  P.  Frothixgham,  New  Bedford,  Mass. 

Rev.  Dr.  Reese  F.  Alsop,  Brooklyn,  N.   Y. 

Rev.  James  B.  Gregg,  Colorado  Springs,  Colo. 

Rev.  C.  H.  Rogers,  Oklahoma. 

Rev.  J.  Vila  Blake,  Chicago,  III. 

Rev.  T.  G.  Exsigx,  Superintendent  of  the  American 
Sunday  School  Union. 

Rev.  James  H.  Darlixgtox,  Christ  Church,  Bedford 
Ave.,  Brooklyn,  N.   Y. 

Rev.  John  P.  Coyle,  North  Adams,  Mass. 

Rev.  J.  M.  Williams,  Burlington  College,  Burlington, 
X.  J. 

Rev.  Wm.  Cleveland  Hicks,  Jr.,  New  York  City. 

Rev.  A.  W.  Meyer,  Editor  "Lutheran   Guide.'1'' 

Rev.  Dr.  Epher  Whitaker,  Southhold,  X.  Y. 

Rev.  Dr.  James  Roberts,  Colwyn,  Pa. 

Rev.  Charles  VY.  Wexdte,  Oakland,  Col. 

Rev.  A.  W.  Jacksox,  Concord,  Mass. 

Rev.  Dewitt  S.  Clark,  Chairman  of  High  School 
Co??i?nittee,  Salem,  Mass. 

Rev.   Dr.  George  F.  Kexxgott,  Lowell,  Mass. 

Rev.  William  Lloyd  Himes,   Concord,  N.  H. 

Rev.   Charles  H.  Oliphaxt,  Methuen,  Mass. 


VIVISECTION  IN  SCHOOLS.  6 1 

Rev.  T.  H.  M.  Villiers  Appleby,  M.  A.,  Archdea- 
con of  Minnesota. 

Rev,  Dr.  Charles  J.  Jones,  Stapleton,  IV.  Y. 

Rev.  Thomas  Duck,  Ha??imondsport,  N.  Y. 

Prof.  William  Knight,  University  of  St.  Andrews, 
Scot/and. 

President  George  A.  Gates,  D.  D.,  Iowa  College, 
Grimiell,  la. 

President  W.  H.  Wilder,  D.  D.,  Illinois  .  Wesley  an 
University,  Bloomington,  III. 

President  Franklin  Carter,  Ph.  D.,  LL.  D.,  Wil- 
liams College,  Mass. 

President  William  Preston  Johnston,  LL.  D., 
Tulare  University,  New  Orleans. 

President  Julius  D.  Dreher,  A.  M.,  Ph.  D.,  Roanoke 
College,   Va. 

President  William  G.  Frost,  Ph.  D.,  Berea  Col- 
lege, Kentucky. 

President  J.  E.  Rankin,  D.  D.,  LL.  D.,  Howard 
University,   Washington,  D.  C. 

President  William  A.  Obenchain,  A.  M.,  Ogden 
College,  Bowling  Green,  Ky. 

President  J.  B.  Shearer,  D.  D.,  LL.  D.,  Davidson 
College,  Davidson,  N.  C. 

Governor  L.  Bradford  Prince,  LL.  D.,  President 
University  of  New  Mexico. 

President  Daniel  A.  Long,  D.  D.,  LL.  D,,  Antioch 
College,  Ohio. 

President  John  V.  N.  Standish,  Ph.  D.,  Lombard 
University,  Galesburg,  III. 


62        AMERICAN  HUMANE   ASSOCIATION. 

President  James  W.  Kane,  St.  John's  College,  Annapo- 
lis, Md. 

Dr.   Edward  Berdoe,  M.  R.  C.  S.,  London,  England. 

W.  T.  Stott,  A.  M.,  D.  D.,  President  Franklin  Col- 
lege, Indiana. 

President  J.  P.  Greene,  William  Jewell  College, 
Missouri. 

Prof.  W.  D.  Vandiver,  Presidmt  State  Normal 
School,  Mo. 

Miss  E.  S.  Creighton,  Principal  Dwight  School, 
Englewood,  N.  J. 

Benjamin  Worcester,  Principal  of  the  Waltham  New 
Church  School,    Waltham,  Mass. 

Mrs.  H.  C.  DeMille,  Principal  of  Henry  DeMille 
School,  Pamlico,  N.  J. 

Prof.  Eugene  R.  Long,  Arkansas  College,  Batesville, 
Ark. 

Miss  M.  A.  Molineux,  A.  M.,  Ph.  D.,  Newton,  Mass. 

Charles  E.  Taylor,  D.  D.,  Forest  College,  N.  C. 

Miss  C.  E.  Mason,  Brook  Hall  Seminary,  Media,  Pa. 

Miss  Ellen  W.  Boyd,  Principal  St.  Agnes  School,  Al- 
bany, N  Y. 

T.  C.  Karns,  Professor  of  Philology  and  Pedagogy  and 
Principal  of  Teachers'  Department,  University  of 
Temiessee,  Knoxville,  Tenn. 

President  James  B.  Day,  D.  D.,  Syracuse  University. 

President  A.  E.  Main,  Alfred,  N.  Y. 

Prof.  B,  W.  Roberts,  Principal  Allston  School,  Cam- 
bridge, Mass. 

Miss  Gertrude  S.  Bowen,  Principal  Bordentown 
Female  College,  N.  J. 


VIVISECTION  IN   SCHOOLS.  63 

W.  Scott  Thomas,  Superintendent  Public  Schools,  Sa?i 
Bernardino,  Cat. 

Francis  Coggswell,  Superintendent  Schools,  Cam- 
bridge, Mass. 

W.  B.  Powell,  Superintendent  of  Public  Schools,  Wash- 
ington, D.  C. 

P.  W.   Search,  Superintendent  Schools,  Pueblo,  Col. 

Miss  R.  S,  Rice,  A.  M.,  Principal  Girls'  Collegiate 
School,  Chicago,  III. 

Miss  Sara  J.  Smith,  Principal  Woodside  Seminary, 
Hartford,  Conn. 

Prof.  W.  C.  Sawyer,  Ph.  D.,  University  of  the  Pacific, 
California. 

Prof,  H.  M.  Willard,  Howard  Seminary,  Mass. 

Prof.  Edward  A.  Allen,  University  of  Missouri. 

Rev.  R.  W.  Chestnut,  Editor  "  Reformed  Presbyterian 
Advocate,"  Marissa,  III. 

E,  C.  Linfield,  Editor  "  Duxbury  Breeze." 

George  M.  Whitaker,  Editor  "  N.  E.  Farmer," 
Boston,  Mass. 

E.  H.  Clement,  Editor  " Boston  Transcript" 

James  P.  Magenis,  Editor  "Adams  Freeman,"  Adams, 
Mass. 

Rev.  Wm.  Dallmann,  Editor  "  Lutheran  Witness," 
Baltimore,  Md. 

R,  H.  Carothers,  Editor  "  Educational  Courant," 
Loicisville,  Ky. 

J.  M.  Dewbery,  Editor  "  Educational  Exchange,"  Mont- 
gomery, Ala. 

W.  J.  Chalmers,  Chicago,  III. 

Maria  H.  Blanding,  Girls'  High  School,  Brooklyn,  N.  Y. 


64       AMERICAN  HUMANE   ASSOCIATION. 

Miss  Maria  L.  Owen,  Ex-President  Springfield  Women's 
Club,  Springfield,  Mass. 

Miss  'E.  E.  Constance  Jones,  Girton  College,  Cam- 
bridge, England. 

Miss  Rowena  A.  Pollard,  Georgetown,  Ky. 

Grace  A.  Oliver,  Marblehead,  Mass. 

Miss  Stella  Dyer  Loring,  Prairie  Ave.,  Chicago,  III. 

Dean  L.  B.  R.  Briggs?  Harvard  University,  Cambridge. 

Wm.  C.  Collor,  Keene  Valley,  N.   Y. 

J.  W.  Plummer,  Chicago,  III. 

E.  N.  L,  Walton,   West  Newton,  Mass. 
Charles  C.  Pickett,  Esq.,  Chicago,  III. 
H.  R.  Arndt,  M.  D.,  San  Diego,  Cal. 
George  Sadler,  M.  D.,  Ravenna,  Ohio. 
Christopher  Roberts,  Esq.,  Newark,  N.  /. 
L.  F.  Ives,  Esq.,  Detroit,  Mich. 

Calvin  M.  Clark,  Haverhill,  Mass. 

Marion  Lawrence,    General  Secretary,    Ohio  Sunday 

School  Association,  Toledo,  Ohio. 
Otto  Reiner.  Esq.,  Brooklyn,  N.  Y. 
C.  B.  Grant,  Esq.,  Houghton,  Mich. 
T.  Griswold  Comstock,  M.  D.,  St.  Louis,  Mo. 

F.  Wilson  Hurd,  M.  D.,  Mmsi,  Pennsylvania. 
Ada  H.  Kepley,  Attomey-at-Law. 

Hon.  John  Turner  Wait,  Norwich,  Conn. 

All  of  which  is  respectfully  submitted. 
Francis  H.  Rowley, 
Albert  Leffingwell,  M.  D., 

Committee. 


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